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THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES 

WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  ITS 

POLITICAL,  MORAL,  SOCIAL,  AND 

EDUCATIONAL  INFLUENCE 

BY 

ALBERT  BERNHARDT  FAUST 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  I 


BOSTON    AND    NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

(Cfte  Jlitierjibe  prcsjS  Cambriboe 
1909 


COPYRIGHT,    1909,    BY   ALBERT    BERNHARDT  FAUST 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 

Published  December,  iqoq 


'  <-    / 


INTRODUCTORY  STATEMENT 

At  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Walther  Wever,  German 
Consul-General  at  Chicago,  Mrs.  Catherine  Seipp  of  that 
city  offered  in  March,  1904,  cash  prizes  for  the  three 
best  monographs  upon  the  subject  indicated  by  the  title 
of  this  book.  Competing  works  were  submitted  under 
assumed  names  on  or  before  March  22,  1907,  to  the  Ger- 
manic Department  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  The 
prize  judges  were  Professors  Hanno  Deiler  of  Tulane, 
Frederick  J.  Turner  of  Wisconsin,  and  Karl  Detlev  Jessen 
of  Bryn  Mawr. 

In  this  contest  Professor  Faust  was  awarded  the  first 
prize  of  $3000. 

STARR  WILLARD   CUTTING. 
The  University  of  Chicago. 


'.\6.5^\9 


PREFACE 

During  the  available  hours  of  more  than  the  last  ten 
years,  the  writer  had  been  studying  and  collecting  mate- 
rials on  the  German  element  in  the  United  States,  enter- 
taining a  vague  hope  of  some  day  embodying  the  results 
of  his  labors  in  some  useful  form.  The  prominence  of  the 
Germans  as  a  formative  element  of  the  American  people, 
their  continuous  participation  in  the  labors  of  peace  and 
the  burdens  of  war,  suggested  the  need  of  a  record  of  the 
essential  facts  in  their  history,  from  the  earHest  period 
of  their  settlements  in  this  country  to  the  present  time. 
Such  an  historical  survey  has  never  existed  in  the  Eng- 
lish language,  nor  has  one  been  attempted  in  German 
since  the  publications  of  Loher  {Geschichte  unci  Ziistdnde 
der  Deutschen  in  Atnerika,  1847)  and  EickhofP  {In  der 
neuen  Hehyiath,  1884).  The  question  whether  the  time 
had  come  for  the  preparation  of  such  a  work,  scholars 
commonly  decided  in  the  negative,  in  view  of  the  large 
amount  of  investigation  still  necessary,  before  a  complete 
history  of  the  Germans  in  this  country  can  be  written. 
This  attitude  of  cautious  reserve,  however,  will  not  en- 
courage research  as  much  as  can  be  hoped  from  an  expo- 
sition of  the  rich  stores  of  information  already  at  hand. 
A  mere  hoarding  of  materials,  without  an  intelligent  use 
of  them,  destroys  opportunity,  and  leaves  a  responsibility 
undischarged. 

In  the  past  few  years  an  increasing  interest  in  the  form- 
ative elements  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  has 
become  manifest.  The  subject  has  been  admitted  into  lec- 


/ 


viii  PREFACE 

ture  courses  at  our  universities,  and  has  been  given  space 
in  the  pages  of  our  popular  magazines.  Moreover  the 
subject  of  foreign  immigration,  involving  the  question  of 
restriction  or  discrimination,  has  become  one  of  the  great 
problems  of  the  present  day.  The  serious  consideration, 
therefore,  of  any  one  of  the  leading  foreign  immigrations 
to  this  country  assumes  a  present  and  practical  value. 

The  call  for  a  comprehensive  essay  on  the  German 
element  in  the  United  States,  by  the  founders  of  the  Con- 
rad Seipp  Memorial  Prizes,  furnished  an  opportunity  and 
incentive  for  the  elaboration  and  completion  of  the  writer's 
work.  The  prescribed  title,  reproduced  verbatim  on  the 
foregoing  title-page,  presented  a  twofold  problem  ;  first, 
an  outline  of  the  history  of  the  Germans  in  the  United 
States,  and  secondly,  a  discussion  of  their  political,  moral, 
social,  and  educational  influence.  The  first  part,  contained 
in  Volume  i,  tells  the  story  of  the  German  settlers  in  the 
thirteen  colonies  before  the  Revolutionary  War,  continues 
the  narrative  through  the  nineteenth  century,  and  calls 
attention  to  their  leading  traits,  their  activities  in  peace 
and  war,  their  cooperation  in  the  building  of  the  nation. 
Their  record  is  a  noble  one,  and  should  animate  their  de- 
scendants with  the  will  to  keep  sacred  such  names  as 
Weiser,  Post,  Herkimer,  Ludwig,  Treutlen,  Helm,  Bow- 
man, Miinch,  FoUen,  Sutro,  Sutter,  Robling,  and  a  host 
of  others,  while  Muhlenberg,  Steuben,  Kalb,  Lieber,  and 
Schurz  should  convey  to  them  the  inspiration  of  lasting 
achievement. 

The  second  part,  the  discussion  of  German  influences, 
contained  in  Volume  ii,  seemed  possible  only  after  an  his- 
torical basis  had  been  laid,  such  as  has  been  attempted  in 
Volume  I.  The  method  followed  was  that  of  summing  up 
instances  in  order  to  establish  principles.  For  example, 


PREFACE  ix 

in  the  chapter  on  industrial  development,  illustrations  are 
furnished,  proving  that  in  all  branches  requiring  technical 
training,  German  influence  has  been  predominant ;  under 
the  head  of  politics,  German  independent  voting  receives 
illustration  ;  in  the  department  of  agriculture,  the  principle 
is  maintained,  that  the  German  farmer  not  only  applied 
his  native  skill  and  industry,  but  whenever  necessary 
adapted  himself  to  new  conditions,  using  and  inventing 
agricultural  machinery,  or  becoming  a  rice-grower  in  the 
South,  a  big  farmer  in  the  West. 

The  obstructions  in  the  path  of  a  final  solution  of  the 
questions  proposed  in  the  second  part  are  even  more  seri- 
ous than  in  the  historical  outline.  The  economic  history 
of  the  United  States  has  not  been  written,  though  steps 
are  now  being  taken  toward  an  ultimate  accomplishment 
of  that  gigantic  task.  The  volumes  on  manufactures  in 
the  Census  Reports  occasionally  furnish  a  few  meagre  de- 
tails, but  the  history  of  none  of  our  great  American  in- 
dustries has  been  made  available.  Each  chapter,  therefore, 
has  furnished  an  entirely  new  field  for  investigation,  and 
difficulties  of  a  different  kind.  The  plan  of  questioning 
experts,  or  representatives  of  a  particular  industry,  has 
frequently  been  resorted  to  by  the  writer,  as,  e.  g.,  in  the 
departments  of  viticulture,  lithography,  and  the  manu- 
facture of  agricultural  machinery.  The  writer  has  thus 
frequently  gained  information  not  accessible  in  books. 
Because  of  these  peculiar  difficulties,  the  second  part  of 
the  work  is  necessarily  more  tentative  than  the  first,  pos- 
sessing the  faults  of  pioneer  work,  yet  for  that  very  rea- 
son the  more  fascinating  to  the  writer,  and,  it  is  believed, 
the  more  suggestive  to  the  reader. 

Because  of  the  necessity  of  restricting  within  moderate 
bounds  the  mass  of  materials  belonging  to  this  subject,  a 


X  PREFACE 

consideration  of  the  Dutch  element  has  been  excluded  from 
these  pages,  except  in  the  statistical  estimate  of  the  num- 
ber of  persons  of  German  blood  in  the  United  States,  con- 
tained in  the  first  chapter  of  the  second  Volume.  The 
Dutch  are  Germans  of  purer  blood  than  the  people  inhab- 
iting some  of  the  eastern  provinces  of  the  German  Empire, 
and  their  history  in  the  United  States  is  frequently  insep- 
arable from  that  of  the  other  German  stocks.  Neverthe- 
less they  frequently  formed  sejDarate  colonies,  as  in  New 
York  State,  and  their  history  is  important  enough  to 
warrant  a  separate  treatment. 

Because  of  their  racial  distinctness,  persons  of  Jewish 
blood,  born  in  Germany,  have  not  been  regularly  consid- 
ered in  this  work.  An  exception  has  been  made  where  they 
contributed  toward  bringing  over  from  Germany  various 
elements  of  cultural,  educational,  or  technical  value.  When 
unmistakably  derived  from  the  German  Fatherland,  their 
work  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  in  education,  and  technical 
industry,  should  be  considered  a  part  of  the  present  investi- 
gation as  clearly  as  the  writings  of  the  poet  Heine  are  to 
be  included  in  the  history  of  German  literature.  The  num- 
ber of  Jewish  immigrants  coming  from  Germany  has  com- 
monly been  overestimated.  During  the  only  period  in  which 
an  accurate  record  has  been  kept,  i.  e.,  since  1898,  it  was 
found  that  the  German  Jews  numbered  only  one  and  one 
half  per  cent  of  the  total  immigration  from  the  German 
Empire  (1898-1904).  In  the  German  Empire  the  Jews 
number  only  one  per  cent  of  the  total  population.  During 
periods  of  social  persecution  in  the  eighteenth  and  early 
nineteenth  centuries  their  percentage  of  immigration  was 
probably  higher,  but  undoubtedly  the  average  was  never 
above  two  per  cent  of  the  German  immigration  to  the 
United  States. 


I 

PREFACE  xi 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  exchide  matter  which 
could  not  be  established  with  certainty.  When,  for  instance, 
the  German  ancestry  of  an  important  individual  was  in 
doubt,  his  name  was  omitted  in  this  record.  Overstatement 
has  perhaps  been  more  carefully  avoided  than  undervalu- 
ation. In  the  choice  of  examples,  particularly  in  the  sec- 
ond Volume,  the  writer  was  forced  to  use  those  concerning 
which  he  had  accurate  information,  and  also  to  discrimi- 
nate in  favor  of  those  that  served  best  as  illustrations.  A 
large  number  of  names  were  thus  omitted,  which  might 
well  have  found  a  place,  many  no  doubtmore  worthy  than 
those  employed.  The  materials  collected  should  therefore  be 
looked  upon  as  illustrative,  not  exhaustive. 

The  writer  gratefully  acknowledges  courtesies  extended 
to  him  by  Dr.  jur.  Walther  Wever,  Consul-General  of  the 
German  Empire  at  Chicago  (1900-1908),  and  by  Professor 
Starr  Willard  Cutting  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  particu- 
larly in  the  matter  of  launching  the  book  after  the  prize 
award  had  been  made.  Though  the  delay  may  have  tried 
their  patience,  the  writer's  wish,  to  be  allowed  to  subject 
the  manuscript  to  a  thorough  revision  before  publication, 
was  honored  by  them  and  the  publishers.  The  writer  de- 
sires to  express  his  thanks  to  Professor  Oscar  Kuhns,  au- 
thor of  "  The  German  and  Swiss  Settlements  of  Colonial 
Pennsylvania,"  for  the  loan  of  valuable  books ;  to  George 
M.  Dutcher,  Professor  of  History  in  Wesleyan  University, 
Middletown,  Connecticut,  who  read  in  manuscript  most  of 
the  chapters  of  the  first  Volume,  and  made  a  large  number 
of  important  corrections  and  suggestions;  to  Professor 
B.  J.  Vos,  of  the  University  of  Indiana,  and  to  Professor 
Lane  Cooper,  of  Cornell  University,  who  carefully  read 
the  first  draft  of  many  of  the  early  chapters. 

A  special  debt  is  due  to  Walter  F.  Willcox,  Professor 


xii  PEEFACE 

of  Political  Economy  and  Statistics,  Cornell  University, 
for  his  continued  interest  in  the  work  during  its  progress, 
and  for  his  criticism  and  direction  in  the  chapter  attempt- 
ing an  estimate  of  the  number  of  persons  of  German  blood 
in  the  population  of  the  United  States  (Volume  ii,  Chap- 
ter i).  Acknowledgment  is  hereby  made  of  aid  received 
from  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  in  the  col- 
lection of  data  for  several  chapters  in  this  book.  The  coop- 
eration of  many  other  helpers  is  gratefully  remembered  ;  in 
most  cases  it  is  acknowledged  on  the  particular  page  where 
their  valued  assistance  was  made  use  of  ;  some  others  who 
have  aided  in  the  laborious  mechanical  tasks  of  book-mak- 
ing, have  preferred  to  remain  unnamed.  Communications 
are  solicited  from  readers  who  have  corrections  to  suggest 
or  information  to  impart. 

A.  B.  F. 

Cornell  University, 
Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  April  20,  1909. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Earliest  Germans  in  the  Anglo-American  Colonies 

Introductory  —  Cosmographers  :    Behaim,    Mercator,    Waldsee- 

mliller,   etc 1-5 

First  German  in  America  :  Tyrker  in  Leif  Ericson's  Expedition  to 

Wiueland  (eleventh  century) 5-7 

Germans  in  earliest  settlements,  Port  Royal  (1562),  Jamestown 

(1607) 7-9 

Peter  Minuit,  purchaser  and  governor  of  Manhattan  Island  (1626)  ; 

founder  of  New  Sweden  (1638) 9-13 

Jacob  Leisler,  governor  of  New  York,  defender  of  the  people's 

cause,  his  martyrdom  (1691),  and  services  to  the  colonies     .  13-26 

Explorers,  etc.,  Lederer,  Hiens,  Peter  Fabian 26-29 

CHAPTER  II 

The  First  Permanent  German  Settlement,  at  Germantown,  1683 

William  Penn  in  Germany        30-31 

The  Pietists  of  Fraukfort-on-the-Main 32-33 

Francis  Daniel  Pastorius,  his  early  life  and  arrival  at  Philadelphia  33-34 

The  Concord,  the  Mayflower  of  the  Germans 35 

Landing,  October  6,  1683 36 

Founding  of  Germantown,  Pennsylvania 36-38 

Industries  and  customs 38-40 

Pastorius  as  patriarch  and  scholar 40-46 

Protest  against  slavery 46 

The  Mystics,  Kelpius  and  his  followers 47-52 

CHAPTER  III 

Increase  in  German  Immigration  in  the  Eighteenth  Century, 

AND  ITS  Causes 

Conditions  in   the  Palatinate  and  in   the  southwestern   German 

countries  :   causes  for  emigration 53-60 

Immigrant  hunting       .     .     .     .   • 61 

Newlanders  and  their  methods 62-65 

The  redemptionist  system  ;  advantages  and  evils 66-68 

Crowding,  extortion,  shipwrecks    .     ". 68-71 

The  Deutsche  Gesellschaft  of  Philadelphia  improves  conditions     .  71-72 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  First  Exodus — The  Palatine  Immigration  to  New  York 

Kocherthal  and  his  followers 73-74 

Founding  of  Newburgb-ou-the-Hudson,  1709 74-76 

The  Exodus   of  1710  :  arrival  in  London,  separation  into  various 

groups,  transportation  to  Ireland,  South  Carolina,  etc.    .     .     .     76-79 
The  main  group  goes  with  Governor  Hunter  to  New  York    .     .     .     79-82 
Governor  Hunter's  plan  and  its  failure.    The  fortunes  and  migra- 
tions  of  the  Palatines  in  New  York  ;   East  and  West  Camp, 

Schoharie,  the  Mohawk,  Tulpehocken,  etc 82-105 

John  Peter  Zenger's  independent  newspaper,  and  his  stand  for  the 

liberty  of  the  press 105-110 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Germans  in  Pennsylvania 

The  various  sects 111-115 

The  Lutherans,  German  Reformed,  and  United  Brethren,  the  three 

most  influential  denominations 116-127 

Statistics,  and  characteristics  of  the  Pennsylvania-German  farmer, 
and  the  sixteen  points  enumerated  by  Dr.  Rush,  the  "  Tacitus  " 
of  the  Pennsylvanians 128-143 

Their  printing-presses,  newspapers,  schools 143-148 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Early  Germans  of  New  Jersey  and  of  Maryland 

New  Jersey  :  Germans  in  New  Jersey  at  the  beginning   of   the 

eighteenth  century 149 

German  Valley 1 149-150 

Settlements   spreading   over   Hunterdon,    Somerset,  Morris,  and 

over  parts  of  Sussex  and  Warren  counties 152-153 

Eminent  descendants  of  the  early  Germans 154 

A  church  quarrel  arbitrated  by  Muhlenberg,  etc 155-158 

The  Reverend  Mr.  Wack  and  other  types 158-159 

The  Moravian  settlements 160-161 

Maryland  :  sporadic  cases  of  German  settlers  in  the  seventeenth 

century   161-163 

In  the  eighteenth  century  Germans  numerous  and  influential  in 

Baltimore 163-167 

The  Germans  of  Western  Maryland  ;  Frederick  County,  Hagers- 

town 167-175 

Distinguished  Marylanders  descended  from  the  early  Germans     .  175-176 


CONTENTS  XV 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Germans  in  Virginia 

Earliest  settlement  at  Germanna,  1714 178 

Governor  Spotswood's  iron-works 178-179 

Settlements  at  Germantown,  Virginia,  and  elsewhere  on  the  Pied- 
mont Plateau 180-183 

Expedition  of  Governor  Spotswood  to  the  mountains  ....  183-186 
German  settlements  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  beginning  1726-1727  188-195 
The  Shenandoah  Valley  receives  the  tide  of  immigration  coming 

from  Pennsylvania 195 

Settlements  pushing  toward  the  southern  slope  of  the  Valley,  and 

through  the  gaps  in  the  mountains 195-196 

Germans  in  other  parts  of  Virginia 197-203 

The  journeys  of  Moravian  missionaries  along  the  frontier     .     .     .  203-211 

CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Germans  in  North  and  South  Carolina  during  the 
Eighteenth  Century 

First  settlement  at  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  in  1710     ....  212-213 

Indian  war 213-215 

Germans  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina 215-216 

Purysburg,  South  Carolina,  1732 216 

Settlements  in  the  Orangeburg  and  Lexington  Districts  (Saxe- 

Gotha),  South  Carolina,  1735 217-218 

The  Giessendanners  ;  Zauberbiihler 218-221 

Counties  of  South  Carolina  with  early  German  settlers     ....  221-226 

The  fifteen  churches  of  South  Carolina 226-228 

German    settlers    from    Pennsylvania    in    the  interior   of   North 

Carolina,  1750 228-229 

The  Reverend  A.  Nussmann 230 

Moravian  settlements  in  the  "  Wachovia  "  tract,  North  Carolina, 

1753 231-232 

Bethabara,  Bethany,  Salem 232-233 

CHAPTER  IX 

German  Settlements  before  the  Revolution  in  Georgia 
AND  in  New  England 

The  Salzburgers  in  Georgia,  1734 234-236 

Founding  of  Ebenezer 236 

The  Moravians  leave  for  Pennsylvania 236 

The  "  great  embarkation,"  1736 236 


xvi  CONTENTS 

Storm  at  sea       237 

John  Wesley 238 

The  location  of  Ebenezer  changed 239 

Governor  Oglethorpe's  kindness 239 

The  Reverend  J.  M.  Bolzius  and  the  Reverend  I.  C.  Grouau,  actual 

governors  of  the  colony 241 

The  question  of  negro  slavery 241-242 

Industries,  milling  and  silk  manufacture 243-244 

The  building  of  churches 244 

A  church  quarrel  arbitrated  by  the  Reverend  H.  M.  Miihlenberg     245-246 

Prosperity  of  the  colony 247 

Waldo's  interest  in  German  colonization  in  New  England  .  .  ,  247-248 
The  founding  of  Waldoburg  (1741)  in  the  Broad  Bay  District  of 

Maine 249 

Sufferings  of  the  first  colonists 249-251 

The  war  with  France,  1744 252 

The  Indian  massacre,  1746 252 

Rebuilding  of  Waldoburg  and  accessions  to  colonists 253 

Massachusetts  attempts  to  encourage  German  immigration  ,     .     .  253 

Crellius  and  Luther  as  agents 253 

Colonies  in  Massachusetts,  Adamsdorf,  Bernardsdorf,  Leydensdorf  254 

Colonies  in  Nova  Scotia 256-258 

Colonies  in  Maine  :  Frankfort,  Dresden,  Bremen,  etc 259 

Disputed  land  claims  and  migration  to  South  Carolina      ....  260 

Germantown,  near  Boston 260 

Strength  of  the  German  element 261 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Location  of  the   German   Settlers    before  1775  ;   Their  De- 
fense OF  THE  Frontier  ;  and  an  Estimate  of  their  Numbers 

The  location  of  the  Germans  before  the  Revolution  marked  by 

counties  (present  boimdaries) 263-264 

Two  facts  impress  themselves  :  (1)  that  the  Germans  occupied  the 
best  farming-lands,  and  (2)  that  they  were  almost  directly  on 
the  frontier  from  Maine  to  Georgria 265-266 

Their  defense  of  the  frontier ;  on  the  Mohawk  ;  and  during  the 

French  and  Indian  War 267-272 

The  services  of  Conrad  Weiser  and  Christian  Frederick  Post,  as 

envoys  to  the  Indians,  etc 272-280 

An  estimate  of  the  number  of  settlers  of  German  blood  in  the  thir- 
teen colonies  in  1775 282-285 


CONTENTS  xvii 


CHAPTER  XI 

The  Germans  as  Patriots  and  Soldiers,  during  the  War  of  the 

Revolution,  1775-1783 

Activity  of  Germans  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  agita- 
tion       287 

Services  of  sectarians  in  the  war .     .  287 

The  Tories 288 

Resolutions  of  the  Virginia  Valley  Germans 292-293 

The  Salzburgers  as  patriots 295 

The  German  regiments 296 

Armancl's  Legion 297 

Washington's  body-guard 298 

TvFO  types  of  German  patriots  :  Peter  Muhlenberg  and  Christopher 

Ludwig 300-305 

The  Mohawk  Germans 305-306 

Battle  of  Oriskany 307-312 

Herkimer .  307-312 

Results  of  the  battle 313-314 

Heroism  on  the  frontier 314-320 

German  officers  in  the  American  army  ;  Baron  Steuben,  his  serv- 
ices,  John   Kalb,  F.  H.    Weissenfels ;    Ziegler  ;    Lutterloh, 

Schott,  etc 320-337 

The  Hiester  and  Muhlenberg  families 337-340 

German  families  of  Charleston,  etc 340-342 

Individuals,  Dohrmann,  etc 342-344 

Germans  in  the  French  service 344-345 

Siege  of  Yorktown 346-349 

The  Hessians 349-356 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Winning  of  the  West 
I.  The  German  Settlers  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 

The  early  history  of  the  Kentucky  settlements 357-361 

Germans  among  the  colonists  from  the  Carolinas  and  the  Valley 

of  Virginia 362 

Favorable  location  of  the  Germans  for  early  colonization      .     .     .  362-363 

Migratory  spirit 363 

The  question  as  to  whether  any  particular  national  type  was  super- 
ior on  the  frontier 364-367 

The  frontier  creates  types 367 


xviii  CONTENTS 

Many   instances  of  Germans    as   hunters,   trappers,   and   Indian 

fighters 367-374 

The  three  classes  of  settlers 374-375 

The  Germans'  share  in  the  permanent  settlement  of  the  Blue  Grass 

region  of  Kentucky 376-377 

Statistics  gathered  from  land-records  and  the  United  States  Bu- 
reau of  Pensions 377-385 

The  Germans  settled  mainly  in  the  central  and  western  portions  of 

the  Blue  Grass  region 386 

Evidences  of  early  settlements  by  Germans  in  Tennessee       .     .     .  387-389 

CHAPTER  Xm 

The  Winning  of  the  West 
II.   The  Settlements  of  the  Ohio  Valley 

German  traders,  hunters,  and  missionaries  in  the  Ohio  territory      .  391 

Causes  for  slow  development 392 

Pontiac's  War 393-394 

Colonel  Bouquet 394-395 

The  first  permanent  white  settlement  in  Ohio  that  of  the  Mora- 
vian  missionaries  on  the  Muskingum  ;  Gnadenhiitten,  Schon- 

brunn,  etc 396-397 

David  Zeisberger 398 

Unfortunate  location  of  Christian  Indians 399^00 

The  massacre  of  the  Christian  Indians  at  Gnadenhiitten    ....  401 

Continuous  Indian  wars 402-404 

Settlements  on  the  Ohio  River,  at  Marietta,  Losantiville  (Cincin- 
nati), etc 406^07 

St.  Clair's  defeat 408-409 

General  David  Ziegler 409-411 

The  Indian  fighter  Lewis  Wetzel 412^17 

Expedition  of  General  Wayne  against  the  Indians  opens  the  coun- 
try for  settlement 417 

Ebenezer  Zane,  founder  of  Zanesville 418^19 

German  sectarians  in  Tuscarawas  County 420-421 

The  "  Backbone  Region "  of  Ohio 422 

The  Scioto  Valley 423 

Martin  Baum  of  Cincinnati,  pioneer  of  Western  commerce    .     .     .  424-426 

Christian  Waldschmidt  in  the  Little  Miami  Valley 426-427 

Dayton  and  Germantown  in  the  valley  of  the  Great  Miami    .     .     .  428 

Distribution  of  German  settlers  throughout  the  larger  towns  of  Ohio  429 

The  traveler  Sealsfield's  observations 429 

Mission  tours  of  the  German  Methodist  Heinrich  Bohm    ....  430-431 


CONTENTS  xix 

CHAPTER  XIV 

The  Winning  of  the  West 
m.  (A)  The  Advance  of  the  Frontier  Line  to  the  Mississippi 

AND  Missouri  Rivers 

(A)  Westward  progress  of  the  frontier  line,  shown  by  the  census 

maps 433 

Descendants  of  Germans  and  foreign-born  Germans  as  frontiersmen  434-435 
Two  centres  of  distribution  on  the  Mississippi :  (1)  New  Orleans, 

(2)  St.  Louis 436 

Early  Germans  in  Louisiana  and  Alabama  (Mobile) 437-439 

German  settlements  along  the  Missouri  River 440 

Duden's  farm,  and  description  of  Missouri 440-442 

The  "  Giessener  Gesellschaft,"  FoUen  and  Miinch 442^43 

German  towns  and  counties  in  Missouri 141  119 

(B)  Beginning  of  the  advance   of  the  frontier   line  toward  the 
Northwest 449 

The  Illinois  territory  opened  by  George  Rogers  Clark      ....  449^50 
Sketch  of  his  expedition  and  of  the  work  of  his  German  lieuten- 
ants, Bowman  and  Helm 451-455 

Settlement  at  Vevay,  Indiana 455 

The  Harmony  Society  (Rappists)  on  the  Wabash  in  1815  .  .  .  455-457 
St.  Clair  County,  Illinois,  Belleville  ;  Highland,  Madison  County   ,  457-460 

Chicago 460^61 

German  settlements  in  Iowa  :  Dubuque,  Davenport,  Des  Moines,  etc.  461^62 
Germans  in  Michigan  ;  the  missionary  Baraga  ;  settlers  in  Detroit, 

Ann  Arbor,  and  Westphalia  (Ionia  County) 463-468 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  Winning  of  the  West 
IV.  The  Northwest,  the  Southwest,  and  the  Far  West 

(A)  The  Northwest  opened  by  the  Black  Hawk  War,  1832       .     .  468-469 

First  German  settlers  in  Wisconsin 469 

Milwaukee  as  a  distributing-centre 470 

Deutsch-Athen 472 

The  causes  for  Wisconsin's  receiving  so  large  a  share  of  German 
immigration  ;  the  plan  of  a  German  state  ;  favorable  soil  ; 
climate  ;  reports  and  literature  ;  sale  of  school  lands  ;  com- 
missioners of  immigration 473-479 

Distribution  of  Germans  in  Wisconsin 479^81 

Minnesota's  first  German  settlers  from  the  Red  River  District  .     .  482^84 

Founding  of  New  Ulm 484 


XX 


CONTENTS 


Indian  troubles 484 

The  attack  on  New  Ulm  by  the  Sioux 485-490 

(B)  The  Southwest 490 

The  earliest  settlers  in  Texas 491-492 

The  "  Adelsverein  "  and  its  plan  of  colonization 493-494 

New  Braunfels  and  Friedrichsburg 495 

Wreck  of  the  "  Adelsverein  " 495-499 

Stability  of  German  colonies  in  Texas *.     .     .  499 

The  agricultural  area  :  Seguin,  New  Braunfels,  San  Antonio      .     .  499 

Germans  prominent  in  Texas  :  Congressmen  Schleicher  and  Degener  499-500 

(C)  The  Far  West 501 

German  Mennonites  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska 501 

The  Pacific  Coast  ;  Oregon  Germans 502-505 

H.  L.  Yesler,  founder  of  Seattle,  Washington 505-507 

John  Sutter,  pioneer  of  California  ;  his  career  ;  gold  first  discovered 

on  his  estate  ;  cause  of  his  misfortimes 507-509 

The  Germans  of  California 509-511 

Sutro  and  Spreckels  in  San  Francisco 610 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The  German  Element  in  the  Wars  of  the  United  States  during 

THE  Nineteenth  Century 

Germans  in  the  War  of  1812  :  Walbach,  Strieker,  Armistead    .     .  512-516 

Indian  wars  :  Heilraan  and  Custer 516-518 

War  with  Mexico  :   Kemper,  Kautz,  and  John  A.  Quitman  (gov- 
ernor of  Mississippi)      . 518-522 

The  Civil  War 522 

Statistics  of  the  numbers  of  German  volunteers  compared  with 

those  of  other  nationalities 522-524 

200,000  volunteers 524-526 

German  regiments       527-528 

The  influence  of  Germans  in  St.  Louis  and  Missouri  ;  the  Turners, 

the  Arsenal,  Camp  Jackson,  Sigel's  campaign,  etc 528-542 

The   Eleventh   Corps    at   Chancellorsville,   Gettysburg,    Lookout 

Mountain,  etc.  ;  Missionary  Ridge 542-556 

German  officers  ;  Sigel,  Hecker,  Blanker,  Willich,  Schurz,  Stein- 

wehr,  Kautz,  etc 556-560 

Engineers  and  artillerymen 560-563 

German  West  Point  graduates 563-565 

Germans  on  the  Confederate  side 565-566 

Germany's  friendly  attitude  during  the  Civil  War 567-568 

The  Spanish  War 668 


CONTENTS 


XXI 


German  volunteers  in  army  and  navy 568-569 

List  of  officers 569-570 

Distinguished  service  of  Rear- Admirals  Schley,  Kautz,  and  Kempff  570-572 

CHAPTER   XVII 

A  Summary  View  of  the  German  Immigrations  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century  ;  Their  Location,  Distribution,  and  General  Character 

Germans  on  the  frontier 573-574 

Diffusion  of  the  German  element  over  the  territory  of  the  United 

States  ;  equal  distribution 574-575 

The  German  Belt 575 

The  states  in  which  the   Germans  are  more  numerous  than  any 

other  foreign  element 575-576 

Table  showing  distribution  of  Germans 577-578 

List  of  cities  with  largest  German  populations 579-580 

Statistics  of  the  German  immigrations  of  the  nineteenth  century    .  581-582 
Causes,  in  the  United  States  and  Germany,  for  the  increase  and  de- 
cline of  immigration 582-587 

The  general  character  of  the  nineteenth  century  immigrants  from 

Germany 587 

Friedrich  Miinch's  three  immigrations 587-590 

Concluding  remarks 590-591 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Old  Market  Square,  Germantown,  Pa Frontispiece 

From  a  photograph  kindly  lent  by  Thomas  H.  Shoemaker,  German- 
town,  Pa.,  of  a  sketch  by  William  Britton  before  1823. 

Martin  Behaim 4 

From  Ghillany's  "Behaim." 

Facsimile  of  Pages  in  which  the  Name  "America"  first 

appeared  8 

From  Waldseemuller's  "  Introductio  Cosmographiae,"  in  the  Library  of 
Harvard  University. 

Gerard  Mercator 12 

From  Mercator's  Atlas,  1613,  in  the  Library  of  Harvard  University. 

Facsimile  of  Title-Page  of  Pastorius'  Bee-Hive     ....    42 
From  "Pastorius'  Bee-Hive,"  by  M.  D.  Learned. 

Facsimile  of  Protest  (1688)  against  the  Buying  and  Keeping 

OF  Negroes 46 

From  the  original  MS.  in  the  Library  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

Johann  Kelpius 50 

From  "  Der  deutsche  Pionier." 

Map  showing  the  Heart  of  the  German  Emigration  District 
IN  the  Eighteenth  Century 60 

The  author's  design. 

Advertisement  of  Redemptioners  for  Sale 68 

From  Franklin's  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette." 

Facsimile  of  an  Indenture 68 

From  the  original  MS.  in  the  Library  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 


xxiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Map  showing  Location  of  Early  German  Settlements  in 

New  York  State 82 

The  author  s  design. 

Facsimile  of  Title-Page  of  Zenger's  New  York    Weekly 
Journal 106 

Froin  the  original  in  the  Lenox  Collection,  Ne^v  York  Public  Library. 

Facsimile  of  Front  Page  of  the  Account  of  Zenger's  Trial  .110 
From  the  original  in  the  Lenox  Collection,  New  York  Public  Library. 

Ephrata  Monastery 114 

South  View  of  the  Brother  House. 
From  a  photograph  by  R.  H.  Garver. 

Rear  View  of  the  Saal  and  Sister  House. 
From  a  photograph  by  George  B.  Millar  &  Co. 

Map  showing  Location  of  Early  German  Settlements,  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania 118 

The  author  s  design. 

Heinrich  Melchior  Muhlenberg 122 

From  an  old  engraving  in  the  collection  of  Julius  F.  Sachse. 

Sauer  Bible  Title,  1743 144 

From  Schantz^s  "  The  Domestic  Life  and  Characteristics  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania-German Pioneer.'^ 

Tulip  Ware  of  the  Pennsylvania- Germans 148 

Sgraffito  Dish  made  in  Eastern  Pennsylvania  in  1762. 

In  Pennsylvania  Museum,  Philadelphia. 

Sgraffito  Pie-Plate:    the  Mischianza.     Made  in  Southeast- 
ern Pennsylvania  in  1786. 
In  Pennsylvania  Museum,  Philadelphia. 

Map  showing  the  Valley  of  Virginia  . 178 

The  author's  design. 

John  Martin  Bolzius 240 

From  StrobeVs  "  The  Sahburgers  and  their  Descendants." 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xxv 

Jerusalem  Church 246 

From  StrobeVa  "  The  Salzburgers  and  their  Descendants." 

Map  showing  German  Settlements  and  Frontier  Line,  in 
1775 264 

The  author's  design. 

Bas-Reliefs  from  the  Oriskany  Monument 308 

The  Hand-to-Hand  Conflict. 
Herkimer  directing  the  Oriskany  Battle. 
From  the  Magazine  of  American  History. 

Baron  Friedrich  von  Steuben 322 

By  C.  W.  Peale.  From  the  original  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia. 

Frederick  August  Muhlenberg 338 

After  the  original  painting  in  the  possession  of  the  family. 

General  Peter  Muhlenberg 338 

From  the  original  painting  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia. 

Rev.  John  Christopher  Kunze :  338 

From  an  original  drawing. 

Rev.  G.  H.  Ernst  Muhlenberg 338 

From  the  original  painting  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia. 

Mississippi  Flat-Boats 358 

After  a  drawing  by  F.  T.  Merrill. 

CoNESTOGA  Wagon 358 

After  a  painting  by  N.  H.  Trotter. 

Map  showing  the  Blue-Grass  Region 376 

The  author's  design. 

Johanna  Maria  Heckewelder 404 

From  "  Der  deutsche  Pionier." 

Map  showing  Distribution  of  the  Population  in  1790  (colored)  432 


xxvi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Map  showing  Distribution  of  the  Population  East  of  the 
lOOth  Meridian  in  1820  {colored) 434 

Map  showing  Distribution  of  the  Population  East  of  the 
100th  Meridian  in  1850  {colored) 436 

Map  showing  Distribution  of  the  Population  (excluding 
Indians  not  taxed)  in  1890  {colored) 438 

General  John  A,  Quitman 520 

From  Claiborne's  "Life  and  Correspmidence  of  J.  A.  Quitman." 

Indianapolis  Monument  to  Civil  War  Heroes 542 

Bruno  Schmitz,  architect.  From  a  photograph,  copyrighted  by  Bass  & 
Woodworth. 

Equestrian    Statue    of   General    John    Frederick    Hart- 

RANFT,    AT    HaRRISBURG,    Pa 564 

F.  W.  Ruckstuhl,  sculptor. 

Map  showing  where  the  Germans  were  most  numerous  in 
1900,  in  comparison  with  Other  Foreign  Populations      ,  576 

Map  showing  Distribution  of  Natives   of  Germany,    1900 

{colored) 578 

From  Statistical  Atlas  of  the  United  States,  1900. 

Map  showing  Distribution    of   Natives   of  Ireland,   1900 
{colored) 580 

Map  showing  Distribution  of  Natives  of  Great  Britain, 
1900  {colored) 582 


PART  I 

AN  HISTORICAL  OUTLINE 

THE  GERMAN  IMMIGRATIONS  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES; 

THEIR  ARRIVAL,  LOCATION,  PROGRESS   OF  THEIR 

SETTLEMENTS;  THEIR  PART  IN  THE  WARS 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  AND  IN 

THE  WINNING  OF  THE  WEST 


THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    EARLIEST    GERMANS    IN    THE    ANGLO-AMERICAN 

COLONIES 

Introductory  —  Cosmographers  :  Behaim,  Mercator,  Waldseemiiller,  etc.  — 
First  German  in  America  :  Tyrker  in  Leif  Ericson's  expedition  to  Wine- 
land  (eleventh  century)  — Germans  in  earliest  settlements,  Port  Royal 
(1562),  Jamestown  (1607) — Peter  Minuit,  purchaser  and  governor  of 
Manhattan  Island  (1626)  ;  founder  of  New  Sweden  (1638)  —  Jacob 
Leisler,  governor  of  New  York,  defender  of  the  people's  cause,  his  martyr- 
dom (1691),  and  services  to  the  colonies  —  Explorers,  etc.  :  Lederer, 
Hiens,  Peter  Fabian. 

In  the  great  struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  North 
American  continent,  it  has  been  well  said,  the  Latin  na- 
tions sent  officers  without  an  army,  the  English,  both  offi- 
cers and  an  army,  the  Germans,  an  army  without  officers/ 
The  Latin  nations,  with  distinguished  leaders  such  as  Cor- 
tez,  Pizarro,  De  Soto,  Champlain,  Marquette,  and  La  Salle, 
whether  in  quest  of  gold  or  of  the  fountain  of  youth,  en- 
gaged in  great  voyages  of  discovery  or  grand  schemes  of 
empire.  The  English,  with  a  clearer  view  of  the  future, 
knew  that  an  empire  could  not  be  established  otherwise 
than  by  colonization.  Selecting  the  zone  best  adapted  to 
the   needs   of    the  Teutonic  stock,    they   invited   other 

'  F.  Kapp,  Die  Deutschen  im  Staate  New  York,  bis  zum  Anfang  des  XIX. 
Jahrhunderts,  p.  3.     New  York  :  Steiger,  1867. 


2  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

branches  of  the  same  racial  group  to  cooperate  in  the 
building  of  an  empire.  The  Germans,  not  united  in  one 
nation  at  home,  poured  streams  of  people  into  the  English 
territory.  Without  organization,  compelled  by  the  need  of 
subsistence,  or  conditions  intolerable  at  home,  they  ap- 
peared on  the  threshold  of  a  new  country,  as  in  the  days 
of  Marius  and  Sulla,  desiring  land,  not  conquest.  Their 
ancient  kinsmen  had  beaten  against  the  barriers  of  the 
Roman  Empire  until  they  had  shattered  them,  and  then 
rejuvenated  all  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  Gaul.  Similarly  in 
modern  times  a  migration  by  the  same  stock  took  place  to 
the  land  of  promise  called  America,  the  very  name  con- 
veying to  the  Teutonic  mind  a  peculiar  fascination,  a  ro- 
mantic charm,  later  enhanced  by  the  halo  of  freedom.  This 
Volkerwanderung  was  not  accompanied  by  the  glory  of 
war  or  the  glamour  of  fame,  but  went  on  in  quiet,  in- 
cessantly and  irresistibly,  for  more  than  two  centuries, 
until  to-day  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States  is  of  German  blood. 

The  great  waves  of  German  immigration  making  their 
way  to  the  American  colonies  did  not  appear  until  the 
eighteenth  century.  Advance  movements  had  heralded 
the  way,  the  first  permanent  settlement  by  Germans  hav- 
ing been  made  at  Germantown,  Pennsylvania,  during  the 
last  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Long  before  this 
there  appeared  sporadic  cases  of  German  settlers,  explorers, 
adventurers,  and  prominent  individuals,  serving  under 
national  flags,  —  any  but  German,  —  some  of  them  at 
the  very  beginnings  of  the  colonization  of  the  United 
States.  Their  history  will  be  the  subject  of  the  present 
chapter. 

A  conspicuous  example  of  prominent  service  under  a  for- 
eign king  is  that  of  Martin  Behaim.  He  served  the  king 


IN  THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONIES         3 

o£  Portugal,  but  was  a  native  of  Nuremberg,  born  in  1459, 
of  an  old  patrician  family  of  that  city.  Fiction  has  been 
active  about  his  great  name,  using  misinterpretations  of 
Portuguese  documents,  or  even  spurious  records,  to  main- 
tain that  Behaim  saw  Pernambuco  and  the  coast  of  Brazil 
almost  a  decade  before  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus,  and 
that  he  gave  to  Magellan  information  needed  to  urge  him 
on  to  his  voyage  around  South  America.  But  even  when 
deprived  of  this  distinction,  Behaim  remains  one  of  the 
most  eminent  men  of  his  age,  in  the  first  rank  among  cos- 
mographers  and  navigators  of  his  time.  He  was  a  friend 
of  Columbus,  whom  he  probably  met  in  Lisbon  between 
1480  and  1484.  He  was  likewise  acquainted  with  Magel- 
lan. During  the  period  named  he  was  in  the  employ  of 
the  king  of  Portugal,  and,  being  appointed  on  a  commis- 
sion for  the  improvement  of  navigation,  he  became  one  of 
the  inventors  of  the  astrolabe.  In  the  capacity  of  cosmo- 
grapher,  he  accompanied  the  expedition  of  Diogo  Cao, 
in  1484,  to  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  After  a  voyage  of 
discovery  lasting  nineteen  months,  he  settled  on  the  island 
of  Fayal,  one  of  the  Azores,  where  he  married  the  daughter 
of  the  stadtholder  of  the  Flemish  colony  established  there. 
In  1491-92  he  visited  Nuremberg,  his  native  city,  for  the 
settlement  of  an  estate.  While  there  he  fashioned  a  globe 
representing  the  earth  as  it  was  known  to  the  foremost 
savants  of  that  day.  On  leaving  he  presented  this  globe  to 
his  native  city,  and  it  is  still  preserved  there  as  the  most 
interesting  relic  of  the  cosmographic  art  antecedent  to  the 
discovery  of  America.  The  globe  does  not  prove  that 
Behaim  was  acquainted  with  the  coast  of  Brazil,  and  his 
influence,  therefore,  upon  the  voyages  of  Columbus  and 
Magellan  could  have  been  only  such  as  to  strengthen  them 
in  their  theories  and  ambitions,  not  to  direct  them.  Before 


4  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

returning  to  Fayal,  Behaim  was  twice  captured  by  pirates 
at  sea,  but  his  release  was  effected  through  friends  and 
his  distinguished  reputation.  He  resided  at  Fayal  until 
1506,  when  he  was  again  in  Lisbon,  where  he  died  the 
same  year. 

The  Germans  were  not  prominent  as  a  seafaring 
people  at  the  period  of  the  discovery  of  America.  The 
glory  of  the  Hanseatic  League  had  departed.  Their  loca- 
tion in  the  heart  of  Europe,  with  but  a  narrow  strip  of 
seacoast  at  the  north,  put  them  at  a  disadvantage  in  com- 
parison with  the  English,  French,  Dutch,  Spaniards,  and 
Portuguese.  But  while  they  were  not  conspicuous  as  lead- 
ers in  the  great  voyages  of  discovery,  their  scholarly  in- 
stincts put  them  in  the  front  rank  as  cosmographers  and 
cartographers.  The  instance  of  Behaim,  constructor  of  the 
Nuremberg  globe  and  one  of  the  inventors  of  the  astrolabe, 
has  just  been  given.  Even  greater  is  the  name  of  Mer- 
cator  (1512-94),  the  inventor  of  the  Mercator  system  of 
projection,  which,  taking  account  of  the  curvature  of  the 
earth's  surface,  is  an  indispensable  aid  in  nautical  map- 
drawing.  Mercator  was  born  in  Flanders  (Rupelmonde, 
Belgium),  and  was  of  German  descent,  his  name  before 
Latinization  being  Gerhard  Kremer.  On  commission  of 
Charles  V,  he  manufactured  a  terrestrial  and  a  celestial 
globe,  which  are  said  to  have  been  superior  to  any  made 
before  that  time.  His  principal  work  was  his  atlas  (first 
edition,  Duisburg,  1594),  printed  from  copper  plates  pre- 
pared by  his  own  hand.  A  number  of  other  German  names 
appear  prominently  among  cartographers,  earlier  than 
Mercator,  such  as  Schoner  (globes,  1515  and  1520), 
Reisch  (map,  1513),  and  the  Low  German  Ruyscli  (Ptol- 
emy of  1508,  with  newly  discovered  lands  indicated).  The 
"  Globus  Mundi "  was  published  at  Strassburg  in  1509, 


(J  o  y 


MARTIN  BEHAIM 


IN  THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONIES         5 

showing  an  early  use  of  the  name  "  America  "  in  the  ac-  | 
companying  text.^  ^^ 

More  important  still  is  the  fact  that  a  German  cosmo- 
grapher  was  the  first  to  suggest  in  a  printed  book  that  the 
name  "  America  "  be  used  to  desig^nate  the  New  World. 
It  was  Martin  Waldseemilller,^  born  at  Freiburg  about 
1480.  In  1507  he  published  his  "  Cosmographiae  Intro- 
ductio,"  in  which  an  account  is  furnished  of  all  the  voy- 
ages of  Vespucius,  and  the  suggestion  of  the  name 
"  America  "  appears,  in  the  following  words  :  — 

But  now  that  these  parts  have  been  more  widely  explored  and 
another  fourth  part  has  been  discovered  by  Americus  Vesputius 
(as  will  appear  in  what  follows),  I  do  not  see  why  any  one  may 
justly  forbid  it  to  be  named  after  Americus,  its  discoverer,  a 
man  of  sagacious  mind,  Amerige,  that  is  the  land  of  Americus, 
or  America,  since  both  Europe  and  Asia  derived  their  names 
from  women. ^ 

The  credit,  therefore,  of  first  advocating  in  print  the 
use  of  the  name  "  America,"  and  also  of  diffusing  widely, 
by  means  of  charts  and  globes,  the  knowledge  of  the 
newly  discovered  countries,  belongs  to  German  cosmo- 
graphers. 

The  first  German  to  land  in  the  New  World  arrived  be- 

'  Justin  Wiusor,  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
171,  172. 

'  The  name  is  spelt  also  Waltzemiiller,  and  Walzemiiller.  A  map  accom- 
panying this  book  has  recently  been  discovered  by  Professor  Fischer  in  Wol- 
legg  Castle,  Wiirtemberg.  It  had  long  been  looked  for,  and  its  existence 
sometimes  disputed.  Cf.  American  Historical  Review,  vol.  x,  pp.  150-154: 
"  The  oldest  map  with  the  name  America  of  the  year  1507,  and  the  Carta 
Marina  of  the  year  1516  by  M.  Waldseemiiller  (Ilacorailus)."  Edited  by 
Joseph  Fischer  and  Fr.  R.  von  Wieser.  London,  1903.  Cf.  also  E.  G.  Bourne, 
"  The  Naming  of  America,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev.  vol.  x,  pp.  49,  50. 

^  A  copy  of  the  first  edition,  of  1507,  of  Waldseemiiller's  Cosmographiae 
Introductio  is  contained  in  the  library  of  Cornell  University  (A.  D.  White 
collection). 


6  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

fore  the  discovery  of  Columbus.  He  was  a  member  of 
Leif  Ericson's  expedition  to  Wineland.  It  is  no  longer  a 
matter  of  doubt  that  the  Icelanders  were  the  first  Europe- 
ans to  sight  the  North  Atlantic  coast,  and  attempt  a  col- 
ony somewhere  between  Labrador  and  New  England.  The 
proof  is  furnished  by  Norse  sagas,  by  traditions  and  docu- 
ments of  various  kinds,  that  taken  together  make  as  good 
evidence  as  we  have  of  many  accepted  historical  events, 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  early  settlement  of  Jamestown. 
The  location  of  the  settlement  by  the  seafarers  of  Iceland 
will  probably  remain  forever  unknown,  beyond  the  limits 
already  mentioned  ;  the  time,  also  a  matter  of  doubt,  has 
been  reckoned  as  in  the  eleventh  century.^  The  German 
in  Leif 's  expedition  was  named  Tyrker,  and  seems  to  have 
been  a  faithful  king's  man  of  the  type  so  frequently 
found  in  German  epic  poetry.  His  discovery  of  the  grape 
is  characteristic,  and  forebodes  coming  events.  The  Norse 
saga  gives  the  following  account :  ^  — 

It  was  discovered  one  evening  that  one  of  their  company  was 
missing,  and  this  proved  to  be  Tyrker,  the  German.  Leif  was 
sorely  troubled  by  this,  for  Tyrker  had  lived  with  Leif  and  his 
father  for  a  long  time,  and  had  been  very  devoted  to  Leif,  when 
he  was  a  child.  Leif  severely  reprimanded  his  com23anions,  and 
prepared  to  go  in  search  for  him,  taking  twelve  men  with  him. 
They  had  proceeded  but  a  short  distance  from  the  house,  when 
they  were  met  by  Tyrker,  whom  they  received  most  cordially. 
Leif  observed  at  once  that  his  foster-father  was  in  lively  spirits. 
.  .  .  Leif  addressed  him,  and  asked  :  "  Wherefore  art  thou  so  be- 
lated, foster-father  mine,  and  astray  from  the  others  ? "  In  the 
beginning  Tyrker  spoke  for  some  time  in  German,  rolling  his 
eyes  and  grinning,  and  they  could  not  understand  him  ;  but  after 

'  A.  M.  Reeves,  The  Finding  of  Wineland  the  Good,  p.  98.  London  :  1890. 
Cf.  also  J.  Fischer,  The  Discoveries  of  the  Norsemen  in  America,  translated 
by  B.  H.  Soulsby,  St.  Louis:  1903,  pp.  1-19. 

2  Reeves,  pp.  66-67. 


IN  THE  ANGLO-AMERICAN  COLONIES         7 

a  time  he  addressed  them  in  the  Northern  tongue :  "  I  did  not  go 
much  farther  (than  you),  and  yet  I  have  something  of  novelty 
to  relate.  I  have  found  vines  and  grapes."  "  Is  this  indeed  true, 
foster-father  ?  "  said  Leif .  "  Of  a  certainty  it  is  true,"  quoth  he, 
"  for  I  was  born  where  there  is  no  lack  of  either  grapes  or  vines." 
They  slept  the  night  through,  and  on  the  morrow  Leif  said  to 
his  shipmates  :  "We  will  now  divide  our  labors,  and  each  day  will 
either  gather  grapes  or  cut  vines  and  fell  trees,  so  as  to  obtain 
a  cargo  of  these  for  my  ship."  ...  A  cargo  sufficient  for  the  ship 
was  cut,  and  when  the  spring  came,  they  made  their  ship  ready, 
and  sailed  away ;  and  from  its  products  Leif  gave  the  land  a 
name,  and  called  it  Wineland. 

The  Germans,  though  not  present  in  large  numbers, 
were  nevertheless  well-nigh  ubiquitous  during  the  period 
of  new  settlements.*  At  Port  Royal,  in  South  Carolina, 
which  was  settled  in  1562  by  a  band  of  Huguenots  under 
Jean  Ribault,  there  seem  to  have  been  some  Alsatian  and 
Hessian  Protestants^  at  the  very  beginning.  The  settle- 
ment was  destroyed  by  the  Spaniard  Menendez  in  1566. 

There  were  several  Germans  among  the  first  settlers  at 
Jamestown  in  1607,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  lists  of  names, 
which  Captain  John  Smith  records,  of  the  original  set- 
tlers of  the  earliest  English  colony  of  America.^  There 
are  also  numerous  direct  references  to  the  "  Dutch  "  set- 
tlers, whom  we  need  not  suppose  to  have  been  natives  of 
Holland,  particularly  since  one  is  referred  to  as  a  Switzar 

'  This  is  also  true  of  Spanish  America.  See  the  publications  of  the  All- 
deutscher  Verband,  in  the  series  "  Kampf  um  das  Deutschtum,"  e.  g.,  Wint- 
zer,  Die  Deutschen  im  tropischen  Amerika  ;  Unold,  Das  Deutschtum  in  Chile; 
Sellin,  Brasilien,  und  die  La  Plata-Staaten. 

*  Handbuch  des  Deutschtums  im  Auslande,  Statistische  Uebersicht  v.  F.  H. 
Henoch,  hrg.  v.  Allgemeinen  deutschen  Schulverein,  p.  113.  Berlin,  1904. 

^  The  True  Travels,  vol.  i,  pp.  153,  172,  173,  Reprint,  Richmond,  Va., 
1819  (of  the  London  edition,  1629).  See  also  The  General  History  of  Virginia, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  45-56,  for  German  names  such  as  Unger,  Keffer,  etc. ;  for  the 
Switzar,  William  Volday,  The  True  Travels,  vol.  i,  p.  231. 


8  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

(Swiss).  The  references  to  this  element  among  the  settlers 
are  not  of  an  enviable  sort,  the  writer  frequently  stigma- 
tizing them  with  the  epithet  "  damned "  Dutch.  On  re- 
viewing their  history  as  told  by  the  vainglorious  captain, 
it  appears  that  the  epithet,  though  frankly  sincere,  is 
rather  a  comment  on  the  Dutchman's  independence  and 
love  of  liberty  than  an  evidence  of  any  serious  defect  of 
character.  The  "  Dutchmen  "  were  artisans,  carpenters 
mainly,  whose  services  were  valuable  in  the  colony.  At 
one  time  three  "  Dutchmen  "  and  two  Enoflishmen  were  em- 
ployed  to  construct  a  house  for  King  Powhatan.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  building  of  the  house  was  apparently  to  get  the 
king  into  the  power  of  Captain  Smith,  and  this  treacherous 
plot  seems  to  have  been  revealed  to  the  king  by  the 
'*  Dutchmen."  Themselves  suffering  under  the  tyranny  of 
the  idlers  of  the  colony,  they  felt  in  sympathy  with  the 
red  men,  who  were  beyond  any  doubt  treated  cruelly  by 
the  settlers  of  Jamestown.  The  "  Dutchmen  "  chose  to 
remain  with  the  Indians,  preferring  ^  their  friendship  to 
that  of  the  "  gentlemen  "  of  Jamestown.  All  efforts  to 
bring  them  back  were  unavailing.  One  of  them  was  caught 

*  True  Travels,  vol.  i,  p.  208.  "  For  the  Dutchmen  finding  his  (King 
Powhatan's)  plentie,  and  knowing  our  want,  and  perceiving  his  preparations 
to  surprise  us,  little  thinking  we  could  escape  both  him  and  famine;  (to  ob- 
taine  his  favour)  revealed  to  him  so  much  as  they  knew  of  our  estates  and 
projects  and  how  to  prevent  them.  One  of  them  being  of  so  great  a  spirit, 
judgement  and  resolution,  and  a  hireling  that  was  certaine  of  his  wages  for 
his  labour,  and  ever  well  used  both  he  and  his  countrymen  ;  that  the  Presi- 
dent knew  not  whom  better  to  trust  ;  and  not  knowing  any  fitter  for  that 
employment  had  sent  him  as  a  spy  to  discover  Powhatan's  intent,  then  little 
doubting  his  honestie,  nor  could  ever  be  certaine  of  his  villany  till  neare 
halfe  a  yeare  after."  It  must  be  remembered  that  as  much  treachery  existed, 
from  Captain  Smith's  point  of  view,  among  the  English  settlers  as  among 
the  foreign.  Between  the  feuds  and  desperate  conditions  prevailing  at 
Jamestown  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  kindly  treatment  of  the  appreciative 
savages  on  the  other,  the  Dutchmen  probably  chose  wisely,  not  feeling  any 
national  pride  in  the  English  settlement. 


COSMOGRAPHIAE 

Capadodam/  Pamphiliam/  Lidia/  CHici^/  Amfic* 
nias  maiorcm  Sc  miiiorem.  Colchiden/Hircaniani 
Hiberiam/  Albamam:8<:  prjctcrea  multas  quas  Q'n 
gillatim  enumerare  longa  mora  eiTet.  Ita  di(fta  ab  ci 
us  nomini's  regina* 

Nunc  veto  Sc  he?  partes  fun  t  latius  lufbata?/  SC 
aiia  quarta  pars  per  Americu  Vefputiumc  vt  in  fe^ 
quentibus  audietur)inuentaen::qua  no n  video  cur 
Amc#  quis  iure  vetet  ab  Amcrico  inuentorc  fagads  ingc 
cico  nij  viro  Amerigen  quafi  Amend  terrani/fiuc  Amc 
ncamdicendamtcum  Sc  Europa  8i  Afia  a  mulieri<? 
bus  (uafordta  (int  nomina.Eius  fitu  8C  gentis  mo^^ 
res  ex  bis  binis  Amend  nauigatioiiibus  qu£  fequu 
tur  liquide  intelligi  datur. 


RVDIMENTA 

qu^  oppofitu  vel  a)ntndenocai;  At<^  in  fexto  cIiV 
mate  Antariflicu  verCus/  8c  pars  extrema  Affricae 
nupcrreperta&T  Zamzibcr/Iaua  minor/ &  Seula 
infulg/  &:  quarta  orbfs  pars(  quam  quia  Americus 
inuenit  Amerigen/ quafi  Amend  tcrra/fiueAme^  Amep 
camnuncuparelicet)fitaefunt.Dcquibus  Auflrali  rigc 
bus  dimatibus  haecPomponij  Mellj  Geographi  Popo; 
verba  intelligenda  Cunt/  vbi  ait.  Zone  Iiabitabilcs  Mtl% 
paria  agunt  anni  tempora/verum  non  pariter.  An# 
tichthones  alteram/nos  alteram  incolimus.IIIius  fi> 


FIRST  APPEARANCE    OF  WORD  "  AMERICA  " 
From  Waldseemiiller's  Introductio  Cosmographine 


UtHAKI 

OF  THE 

UHtvERsmr  Of  uunois 


IN   THE  ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONIES         9 

later  and  "  went  by  the  heels."  They  were  felt  to  be  a 
serious  menace  to  the  colony  of  Jamestown,  whether  justly 
so  or  not,  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain. 

Clearly  the  situation  at  Jamestown  was  not  of  the  best 
for  laborers.  They  had  to  do  all  the  work  for  the  drones. 
Captain  John  Smith  himself  agrees  in  the  following  state- 
ment to  the  authorities  at  home  :  "  When  you  send  again e 
I  entreat  you  rather  send  but  thirty  Carpenters,  husband- 
men, gardiners,  fisher  men,  blacksmiths,  masons,  and  dig- 
gers up  of  trees'  roots,  well  provided,  then  a  thousand  of 
such  as  we  have ;  for  except  wee  be  able  both  to  lodge  them 
and  feed  them,  the  most  will  consume  with  want  of  neces- 
saries before  they  can  be  made  good  for  anything."^  The 
following  throws  light  upon  the  treatment  the  "  Dutch  "- 
men  received  :  "  As  for  the  hiring  of  the  Poles  and  Dutch- 
men," says  Captain  Smith,  "  to  make  Pitch,  Tar,  Glasse, 
Milles  and  Sope  ashes,  when  the  country  is  replenished 
with  people  and  necessaries,  would  have  done  well,  but  to 
send  them  and  seventy  more  without  victualls  to  work,  was 
not  so  well  advised  nor  considered  of  as  it  should  have 
beene."  ^  Again  he  comments  on  the  character  of  the  set- 
tlers as  follows  :  "  Adventurers  that  never  did  know  what 
a  day's  work  was,  except  the  Dutchmen  and  Poles  and  some 
dozen  other.  For  all  the  rest  were  poore  Gentlemen, 
Tradesmen,  Serving-men,  libertines,  and  such  like,  ten 
times  more  fit  to  spoyle  a  Commonwealth,  than  either  to 
begin  one  or  but  help  to  maintaine  one."  ^ 

There  were  Germans  in  the  Dutch  settlement  of  New 
Netherland,  and  among  them,  two  who  were  second  to 
none  in  moulding  the  destinies  of  the  colony.  The  one 
was  the  first  governor  of  New  Netherland,  Peter  Minuit, 

*  True  Travels,  vol.  i,  p.  202. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  193.  '  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  241. 


10  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

and  tlie  other  the  first  governor  of  New  York  to  repre- 
sent the  popular  party,  Jacob  Leisler. 

Little  is  known  of  Peter  Minuit  (Minnewit)  before  he 
appeared  in  America  as  director  of  the  colony  of  New 
Netherland.  All  sources  agree  that  he  was  born  in  Wesel 
on  the  Rhine,  and  was  a  Protestant.  He  arrived  in  New 
Amsterdam  in  May,  1626,  with  almost  absolute  power 
over  the  colony.  Where  his  predecessors  had  been  unsuc- 
cessful he  built  the  foundation  for  the  greatest  metropolis 
on  the  American  continent.  It  was  he  who  bought  from 
the  Indians  the  Island  of  Manhattan  (22,000  acres)  for 
sixty  Dutch  guilders,  or  about  twenty-four  dollars  in  gold. 
Having  obtained  a  secure  title  to  the  land,  he  next  erected 
the  first  stone  fort,  at  the  Battery,  and  called  it  Fort 
Amsterdam.  This  kept  the  Indians  in  check  and  increased 
the  number  of  settlers  about  the  fort.  The  colonists  soon 
became  as  busy  and  enterprising  as  their  transatlantic 
kinsmen  in  the  Low  Countries.  The  Dutch  West  India 
Company  supplied  cattle  and  horses  and  land  for  the  ask- 
ing, while  the  crops  raised  were  sufficient  for  the  support 
of  the  colonists.  Their  most  profitable  occupation  was  the 
fur  trade  with  the  Indians.  The  Dutch  at  New  Amster- 
dam became  the  rivals  and  superiors  of  the  Pilgrim  Fa- 
thers as  fur  traders.  Their  exportation  of  furs,  that  in  1624 
had  reached  the  sum  of  25,000  guilders,  in  1628,  when 
the  colony  numbered  270  souls,  rose  to  56,000,  and  in 
1631  to  130,000  guilders.  The  population  steadily  in- 
creased in  the  intervening  years.  Several  ships  arrived 
annually  with  settlers  who  were  brought  over  by  the  com- 
pany at  twelve  and  one  half  cents  per  day  for  passage  and 
board  and  on  their  arrival  received  as  much  land  as  they 
could  cultivate.  As  early  as  1631  the  shipbuilders  of  New 
Amsterdam,  under  Minuit's  administration,  built  the  New 


IN  THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONIES       11 

ISfetherland,  estimated  differently  at  six  to  eight  Iiim- 
dred  tons  burden,  and  armed  with  thirty  guns,  one  of  the 
largest  ships  afloat^  at  that  time,  and  an  object  of  envy 
for  the  mother  country.^ 

Minuit  cultivated  amicable  relations  with  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies,  but  insisted  upon  his  territorial  rights.  In 
1629  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  established  the 
patroon  system,  which  was  destined  to  have  an  unfavor- 
able effect  on  the  development  of  the  colony.  Patroons 
were  originally  members  of  the  West  India  Company,  who 
assumed  semi-feudal  rights  over  large  tracts,  nominally 
bestowed  on  them  on  condition  that  they  would  plant 
a  colony  of  fifty  persons  on  the  land  within  four  years. 
They  became  manor  lords  carrying  on  colonization  as  a 
private  affair.  This  unfortunate  system  aroused  a  great 
deal  of  opposition,  and  Minuit  was  made  the  scapegoat, 
though  he  had  never  favored  the  patroons  beyond  obey- 
ing the  commands  of  the  company.  Minuit  was  recalled 
in  August,  1631,  and  departed  in  1632,  leaving  the  colony 
in  a  most  prosperous  condition.  After  having  tried  in  vain 
to  get  justice  in  Holland,  he  determined  to  offer  his  serv- 
ices to  the  king  of  Sweden. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  is  known  as  a  mighty  war  lord  and 
defender  of  the  Protestant  faith,  but  little  is  commonly 
heard  of  his  far-reaching  plans  of  colonial  development. 
William  Usselinx,  a  native  of  Antwerp,  was  the  first  to 
suggest  to  Gustavus  Adolphus  the  enormous  possibilities 
of  colonial  expansion.  Not  favored  at  home,  the  genius  of 
Usselinx  was  given  a  sphere  of  activity  under  the  ambi- 
tious ruler  of  Sweden.  The  Swedish  South  Company  was 

*  Cf.  Fiske,  The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,  vol.  i,  p.  124. 
^  The  Royal  George,  1200  tons,  was  built  for  the  East  India  Company  at 
Blackwall  (London)  about  1640. 


12  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

founded  in  1626-27  for  trade  and  colonization  west  of  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  extensive  privileges  were  to  be 
given  the  company  for  twelve  years.  The  king  himself 
siarned  for  •400,000  Swedish  talers.  The  German  cities  of 
Stralsund  and  Stettin  desired  to  become  members,  so  also 
the  Duke  of  Pomerania,  and  much  was  hoped  for  from 
the  rich  city  of  Danzig.  Livland,  with  its  German  popu- 
lation, wished  to  subscribe  150,000  talers,  and  Emden, 
eager  to  expand  its  commerce,  was  anxious  to  obtain  a 
seat  and  voice  among  the  directors  of  the  company.  But 
the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  wrecked  these  ambitious 
plans.  The  chancellor,  Oxenstierna,  kept  Usselinx  in  charge 
until  the  latter  seems  to  have  given  up  hope.  His  place  as 
leader  of  the  company  was  then  taken  by  Minuit,  who 
arrived  in  Stockholm  not  earlier  than  1636  and  quickly 
gained  the  confidence  of  the  great  statesman.  Minuit 
directed  Swedish  colonial  ambitions  toward  an  attainable 
goal  by  turning  the  attention  of  the  chancellor  to  the 
countrv  between  Yirgfinia  and  New  Netherland,  the  land 
that,  some  years  after,  AVilliam  Penn  received  as  a  grant 
from  the  English  crown.  It  included  the  present  states  of 
Delaware  and  Pennsylvania,  and  parts  of  New  Jersey  and 
Marvland,  territorv  that  in  the  next  centurv  became  the 
most  fertile  soil  for  the  expansion  of  the  Germanic  race. 
Distinct  advantages  which  Minuit  possessed  were,  first, 
his  exceptional  experience  and  keen  insight,  and  secondly, 
the  prestige  that  Sweden  had  recently  won  oo  the  battle- 
fields of  Europe. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1637,  with  a  warship  and 
transport  bearing  fifty  immigrants  well  provisioned,  he  left 
for  the  New  World,  arriving  in  Delaware  Bay  in  April, 
1638,  and  successfully  kept  the  English  in  Virginia  and 
the  Dutch  at  New  York  from  interferins^  with  his  schemes 


GERARD  MERCATOR 


OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  lUwoiS 


IN  THE  ANGLO-AMERICAN  COLONIES       13 

of  colonization.  By  means  of  a  bold  front  and  wise  direc- 
tion he  kept  his  stand  securely,  knowing  minutely  the 
weaknesses  of  his  neighbors  on  either  hand.  He  built 
Fort  Christina  in  honor  of  the  Swedish  queen,  about  two 
miles  from  the  confluence  of  the  Minquaskill  and  the 
Delaware,  very  near  the  present  city  of  Wilmington.  No 
one  understood  the  fur  trade  better  than  Minuit,  and  even 
in  his  first  year  he  drew  30,000  guilders  of  trade  away 
from  New  Netherland.  Colonists  swarmed  to  the  banks  of 
the  Delaware,  New  Sweden  claiming  the  territory  on  its 
banks.  By  1640  the  colony  had  received  many  new  ac- 
cessions, some  from  Holland.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to 
suppose  that  a  number  of  Germans  were  among  the  settlers 
of  New  Sweden,  since  the  German  cities  of  the  Baltic  had 
shown  such  an  active  interest  in  the  beginnings  of  the 
Swedish  West  India  Company.  Minuit  died  at  his  post  in 
1641,  and  was  buried  at  Fort  Christina.  No  one  dared  at- 
tack the  colony  during  his  lifetime.  Its  independence  was 
retained  fourteen  years  longer,^  until  in  1655  it  became 
part  of  New  Netherland  under  the  energetic  governor, 
Stuyvesant. 

About  fifty  years  later,  in  the  early  history  of  New 
York,  there  lived  another  German  leader  of  men,  Jacob 
Leisler,  the  second  German  governor  of  New  York  and 
first  representative  of  the  popular  party,  for  whose  cause 
he  suffered  martyrdom.  He  was  born  in  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,  and  arrived  in  New  York  in  1660,  as  a  soldier  in 
the  service  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company.  He  ac- 
quired wealth  through  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  by 

^  John  Printz,  Governor  of  New  Sweden  from  1642  to  1653,  according  to 
trustworthy  authority  was  a  German  nobleman  (Johann  Printz  von  Buchau) 
and  had  been  a  commander  under  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  Seidensticker,  Bilder  aiis  der  deutsch-pennsylvanischen  Geschichte,  p.  3 
(Gesckichtsblcitter,  vol.  ii).  New  York:  Steiger,  1886. 


14  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

marriage  became  connected  with  the  Dutch  aristocracy  of 
New  York.  Instead  of  becoming  a  manor  lord  and  pro- 
prietor, then  the  great  goal  of  provincial  ambition,  Leisler 
devoted  himself  to  trade  and  business,  to  the  full  extent 
of  his  extraordinary  energy.  He  soon  became  one  of  the 
wealthiest  citizens  of  New  York,  his  estate  being  valued 
at  15,000  guilders,  and  only  six  citizens  being  richer  than 
himself.  One  of  the  three  barks  owned  in  New  York  in 
1684  belonged  to  him,  and  in  the  year  before  he  had 
been  appointed  a  member  of  the  Admiralty  Court  by 
Governor  Dongan.  He  was  capable  of  humanitarian 
ventures,  as  when,  in  1689,  he  bought  a  piece  of  land, 
the  present  site  of  New  Rochelle  in  Westchester  County, 
for  the  Huguenots  who  had  landed  in  New  York.  x\n 
evidence  of  wealth  also  was  the  ransom  of  five  hundred 
pounds,  paid  when  he  was  captured  by  the  pirates  of 
Tunis  in  1678.^ 

But  Leisler  was  as  public-spirited  as  he  was  wealthy. 
He  gave  little  attention  to  party  strife  and  to  the  in- 
trigues by  which  leading  families  gained  influence  with  the 
governor,  but  whenever  an  occasion  of  moment  arrived, 
Jacob  Leisler  was  the  man  that  impressed  the  people  with 
his  exceptional  integrity,  liberality,  and  firmness.  When, 
in  1675,  Governor  Andros  fined  a  number  of  burghers 
because  of  their  opposition  to  "  Popery,"  Leisler  refused 
to  pay,  preferring  imprisonment  to  the  renunciation  of 
his  principles.  At  another  time,  when  a  poor  Huguenot 
family  landed  in  New  York  and  were  to  be  sold  as  re- 
demptioners,  he  instantly  paid  down  the  sum  demanded 
for  their  transportation,  thus  delivering  the  refugees  from 
years  of  servitude. 

Conditions  in  New  York  favored  the  development  of 

I  Cf.  Kapp,  p.  39. 


IN  THE   ANGLO-A^IERICAN  COLONIES       15 

a  popular  party  in  opposition  to  aristocratic  rule.  King 
James  II  had  combined  the  colonies  of  New  England, 
New  York,  and  New  Jersey  under  the  governorship  of 
Andros,  an  action  which  displeased  the  Dutch  greatly,  for 
they  felt  a  danger  of  being  overshadowed  by  the  neigh- 
boring Puritan  colony.  While  Governor  Andros  was  in 
New  England,  he  left  New  York  in  charge  of  Francis 
Nicholson,  as  lieutenant-governor.  On  February  5,  1689, 
a  Dutch  sea-captain  brought  him  the  first  news  of  the 
landing  of  William  of  Orange  in  England,  but  Nicholson 
threatened  the  messenger  with  severe  punishment,  if  he 
allowed  the  news  to  spread.  But  a  week  later  the  mer- 
chant and  ship-owmer,  Jacob  Leisler,  received  the  news 
independently  and  made  it  public.  The  propitious  moment 
had  not  yet  arrived,  however,  for  a  revolt  of  the  people 
against  their  oppressors.  They  lacked  a  leader.  The  man 
who  could  help  was  not  a  demagogue  and  would  not  act 
unless  forced  by  circumstances.  That  man  was  Jacob  Leis- 
ler, whose  German  birth  secured  for  him  the  sympathy 
of  the  Dutch  population,  and  whose  public  life  was  noted 
for  public  spirit,  energy,  and  liberality.  He  was  recog- 
nized as  a  good  soldier,  and,  though  connected  with  the 
aristocracy  by  marriage,  remained  a  man  of  the  people, 
alive  to  their  interests,  nearer  to  them  in  habits  and 
culture  or  the  lack  of  it,  and  admired  by  them  for  his 
plain  honesty  that  never  stooped  to  selfish  ends,  a  prac- 
tice so  common  among  the  aristocrats.  All  too  great  was 
his  love  of  duty,  his  disinterested  assent  to  the  wishes  of 
others,  and,  as  later  events  proved,  too  keen  his  sense 
of  responsibility  in  his  high  position. 

Nicholson's  unpopularity  and  that  of  the  ruling  class 
grew  from  week  to  week  and  from  day  to  day,  and  the 
slightest  shock  was  sufficient  to  kindle  the  spark  of  revolt. 


16  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

An  accidental  remark  of  Nicliolson's,  "  I  would  rather  see 
the  city  on  fire  than  take  the  impudence  of  such  fellows 
as  you,"  addressed  to  an  insubordinate  lieutenant,  gave 
rise  to  the  alarming  rumor  that  the  governor  was  about 
to  set  the  city  on  fire.  The  flame  of  revolution  blazed 
up  instantly,  and  spread  without  let  or  hindrance.  The 
mob  was  united  in  the  desire  to  capture  the  fort,  the 
key  to  the  city,  with  their  oldest  captain  to  march  at  their 
head.  "  To  Leisler,  to  Leisler's  house,"  was  the  cry,  —  but 
Leisler  refused  to  assume  the  leadership.  Lieutenant  StoU 
of  the  Leisler  Company,  with  quick  decision,  led  them 
on  to  the  fort.  Nicholson  and  Bayard,  colonel  of  militia, 
offered  no  resistance,  submitting  to  the  inevitable. 

On  the  next  day  Leisler,  in  a  public  address,  declared, 
for  himself  and  his  party,  the  intention  to  hold  the  fort 
for  King  William,  at  the  same  time  entreating  the  citizens 
to  aid  him  in  this  purpose.  The  masses  were  yet  unde- 
cided, they  still  feared  the  lieutenant-governor,  when  a 
false  rumor  spread  that  there  were  three  ships  in  the  bay 
with  commands  of  the  new  king.  Upon  this,  the  entire 
militia  company,  about  four  hundred  men  with  their 
officers,  declared  themselves  for  Leisler,  the  cause  of  the 
Protestant  religion  and  the  Prince  of  Orange,  until  they 
should  receive  commands  from  the  latter,  their  king.  All 
those  that  had  wavered  now  joined  Leisler.  Nicholson 
fled  from  the  country,  and  his  counselors  escaped  or  con- 
cealed themselves  from  the  wrath  of  the  people. 

The  city  was  now  without  a  government.  Thereupon 
by  popular  vote  a  committee  of  safety  was  elected,  con- 
sisting of  the  most  prominent  burghers  of  the  citizen's 
party,  who,  on  June  8, 1689,  appointed  Leisler  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  fort  and  of  the  city,  until  the  arrival  of 
the  new  governor  from  Endand.  When  the  news  arrived 


IN  THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN  COLONIES       17 

of  the  coronation  of  William  and  Mary,  Leisler  at  once 
made  preparations  for  a  solemn  ceremony  of  homage,  and 
notified  the  provincial  and  municipal  officials  to  take  part. 
When  these  refused  to  join  in  rendering  homage,  the  cere- 
mony took  place  in  New  York  and  Albany  without  them. 
Leisler  in  consequence  dismissed  the  magistrate  of  the 
city,  and  the  committee  organized  new  elections  for  the 
vacant  places  of  burgomaster  and  aldermen.  The  aristo- 
crats naturally  did  not  secure  an  office,  and  in  August, 
1689,  the  committee  of  safety  appointed  Leisler  supreme 
commander  of  the  province.  Leisler  made  a  complete  re- 
port to  King  William  of  all  that  had  been  done,  assuring 
him  of  his  loyalty,  his  zeal  for  the  Protestant  cause,  and 
begging  for  speedy  instructions.  Even  Leisler's  enemies 
never  doubted  the  sincerity  of  this  petition,  and  could 
find  fault  only  with  its  English.  Lieutenant  Stoll  was  sent 
to  England  with  this  petition,  handed  it  to  the  king  in 
person  in  November,  1689,  but  met  with  no  success,  for 
Nicholson,  who  had  arrived  earlier,  had  poisoned  the 
king's  ear  in  regard  to  the  popular  party  in  New  York, 
declaring  that  its  actions  had  arisen  from  hostility  to  the 
English  Church  rather  than  from  zeal  for  the  new  dy- 
nasty. Thus  the  reward  that  Leisler  merited  at  royal  hands 
for  the  successful  issue  of  the  revolution,  was  lost.^ 
Neighbors  at  home,  on  the  other  hand,  recognized  the 
loyal  and  honest  efforts  of  the  popular  governor,  and  sent 
their  best  wishes  for  the  progress  of  the  revolution,  but 
the  dethroned  aristocrats  spared  no  efforts  in  provoking 
dissension  and  discord.  The  name  of  Leisler  was  dragged 
through  the  mire.  He  was  branded  as  a  tyrant,  usurper, 
demagogue,  even  as  a  Papist  and  Jacobite,  by  the  very 

*  Cf.  Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the  State  of  N.  Y.,  vol. 
iii,  pp.  COS  f.  (Brodhead). 


18  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

persons  who  had  proved  their  disloyalty  to  the  new 
dynasty. 

One  illegal  act,  and  one  only,  was  committed  by  Leis- 
ler,^  namely,  that  he  did  not  pubhsh  a  certain  clause  of 
the  king's  address  that  recommended  retaining  all  old 
officials  with  the  exception  of  Papists.  Leisler  can  be 
justified,  however,  on  the  ground  that  he  could  not  have 
carried  the  revolution  through  successfully  if  the  aristo- 
crats had  remained  in  office.  The  new  popular  principle 
could  not  be  represented  by  them. 

An  unfortunate  move  also  was  his  attempt  to  force  Al- 
bany to  recognize  his  government.  Bayard  had  fled  thither 
and  succeeded  in  winning  to  his  side  influential  citizens 
such  as  the  Schuylers,  Bleeckers,  Van  Rensselaers,Cuylers, 
and  others.  Leisler  was  provoked  by  the  order  of  Bayard, 
issued  to  the  militia  companies  that  had  been  under  his 
command  in  New  York,  forbidding  them  to  obey  Leisler. 
The  latter  answered  this  order  by  sending  an  armed  com- 
pany under  the  command  of  his  son-in-law,  Jacob  Milborne, 
to  take  possession  of  the  fort  at  Albany  and  defend  the 
cause  of  the  Protestant  king  "against  Indians  and  other 
hostile  attacks."  The  soldiers  were  not  admitted  into  the 
city,  and  as  Milborne  was  too  weak  to  risk  a  battle,  he 
was  compelled  to  withdraw.  This  false  step  gave  the  fugi- 
tive aristocrats  a  chance  to  file  complaints  at  the  English 
court  against  the  government  of  Leisler,  falsely  accusing 
him  of  rebellion  against  the  English  dynasty. 

Not  long  after  these  events,  in  the  beginning  of  Decem- 
ber, 1689,  a  royal  messenger  arrived  in  Boston  with  a  let- 
ter addressed  to  Francis  Nicholson,  "  or  in  his  absence  to 
such  as  for  the  time  being  take  care  for  Preserving  the 

1  F.  Kapp,  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  im  Staate  New  York,  p.  44.  New 
York:  Steiger,  1867. 


IN  THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN  COLONIES       19 

Peace  and  administering  the  Lawes  in  our  said  Province  of 
New  York  in  America."  ^  The  enemies  of  Leisler  attempted 
to  get  possession  of  this  letter,  i.  e.,  to  become  its  recipi- 
ents while  in  New  York,  and  thereby  obtain  authority. 
Bayard  and  PhiHpse,  representing  a  part  of  the  old  gov- 
ernment, secretly  went  to  New  York  for  this  purpose,  but, 
the  ruling  party  also  hearing  of  the  letter,  the  messenger 
was  taken  at  once  to  the  fort,  where  Leisler  was  in  com- 
mand. The  letter  empowered  the  man  to  whom  it  was 
directed  to  assume  command  as  lieutenant-governor  and 
appoint  a  council  to  assist  him  in  the  direction  of  affairs. 
Accordingly  Leisler,  on  December  11,  1689,  assumed  the 
title  of  lieutenant-governor  and  named  a  council  of  nine 
persons  representing  the  various  trades  of  the  province. 
This  royal  message  put  aside  any  remaining  scruples  as  to 
the  justice  of  Leisler's  assumption  of  authority,  and  the 
political  affairs  of  the  colony  soon  assumed  an  orderly  and 
peaceful  aspect. 

An  effort  was  made  to  capture  Leisler  on  the  streets  of 
New  York,  but,  the  attempt  proving  unsuccessful,  the  ring- 
leaders, Bayard,  Van  Cortlandt,  Nicolls,  and  others  were 
themselves  captured  and  thrown  into  prison  for  high  trea- 
son against  His  Majesty's  officers.  Bayard  and  Nicolls  were 
captured  while  attempting  to  escape,  and  the  sentence  of 
death  was  pronounced  against  them.  They  humbly  sued 
for  mercy  and  Leisler  relented.  In  the  course  of  events 
they  caused  Leisler's  ruin.  Had  Leisler  employed  the  thor- 
ough methods  of  the  revolutionary  dictator,  he  would  have 
destroyed  his  enemies  while  they  were  in  his  power,  and 
thereby  forever  ended  their  opportunities  for  doing  harm. 
This  act  of  grace  on  the  part  of  Leisler,  while  it  elevates 
him  as  a  man,  was  undoubtedly  a  political  mistake. 

'  Documents  rel.  Colonial  History,  vol.  iii,  p.  606. 


20  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Hardly  had  he  become  master  over  his  enemies  within, 
before  the  lieutenant-governor  had  to  meet  a  more  terrible 
foe  without,  the  French  and  Indians,  commanded  by  the 
brave  and  energetic  Frontenac.  At  the  beginning  of  Janu- 
ary, 1690,  the  French  governor  had  planned  an  attack  on 
New  York  by  way  of  the  Mohawk  Valley  and  Albany. 
The  event  which  stands  out  in  lurid  colors  is  the  massacre 
at  Schenectady.  The  fort  was  surprised,  burned,  and 
plundered,  and  the  occupants  slain  or  taken  prisoners. 
This  terrible  misfortune  had  no  ill  effect,  however,  on  the 
political  fortunes  of  Leisler,  for  when  he  now  sent  troops  in 
the  defense  of  Albany,  the  city  willingly  opened  its  gates 
and  recognized  Leisler's  authority.  He  made  the  city 
secure  ao^ainst  hostile  attacks  and  sent  a  division  of  140 
men  fifty  miles  beyond  to  guard  against  surprise.  The 
enemies  of  the  lieutenant-governor  fled  to  New  England. 

Leisler  proved  himself  equal  to  the  emergency.  He  saw 
that  cooperative  action  on  the  part  of  the  colonies  was 
essential  to  resist  the  formidable  foe.  Accordingly,  in  the 
beginning  of  April,  1690,  he  invited  the  governors  of 
Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  East  and  West  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland,  and  Virginia  to  a  common  council  at 
New  York.^  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  New 
Jersey,  and  Maryland  were  represented  in  this  plan  of  de- 
fense. The  Carolinas  were  in  their  infancy,  and  Virginia 
was  too  remote.  The  meetino^  of  this  cono^ress  at  New  York 
on  the  first  of  May,  1690,  was  a  memorable  event  in  Ameri- 
can history.  It  was  the  first  congress  of  American  colo- 
nies, the  first  of  a  series,  that  by  process  of  evolution  was 
to  culminate  in  the  Continental  Congress.^  The  congress 
decided  that  Massachusetts  should  send  160  men,  Con- 
necticut 135,  Plymouth  60,  New  York  400,  and  Maryland 

1  Cf.  Kapp,  p.  48.  2  Cf.  Fiske,  ii,  182-184. 


IN  THE  ANGLO-AMERICAN  COLONIES       21 

100,  in  an  expedition  for  the  conquering  of  Canada,  while 
Massachusetts  was  also  to  equip  a  fleet  for  the  taking  of 
Quebec.  At  the  same  time  the  Mohawk  Indians  promised 
an  auxiliary  force  of  1800  warriors  to  attack  the  French. 
It  was  the  first  attempt  at  united  action  on  the  part  of  the 
colonies,  without  the  aid  of  the  mother  country.  The  great 
plan,  however,  was  not  destined  to  succeed,  largely  owing 
to  the  jealousies  and  misunderstandings  among  the  lead- 
ers. The  expedition  at  sea  met  a  similar  fate.  Though 
arriving  at  Quebec,  the  fleet  delayed  its  attack,  and  was 
forced  to  retreat  with  great  loss.  Contrary  winds  and 
storms  on  the  return  made  its  destruction  almost  complete, 
thouoh  the  New  York  conting^ent  were  fortunate  enouo^h 
to  reach  home  with  their  ships. 

Leisler  had  won  the  distinction  of  equipping  the  first 
warship  that  went  out  from  New  York,  he  had  added 
three  ships  to  the  fleet,  and  contributed  energetically  in 
every  department.  He  had  instituted  the  pursuit  of  six 
French  ships  that  had  dared  to  approach  New  York  Har- 
bor, had  had  them  brought  to  New  York,  condemned,  and 
sold  as  prizes,  a  stroke  which  remained  the  only  fortunate 
event  in  a  chain  of  disasters.  However,  as  a  result  of  the 
expensive  operations  against  Canada,  all  of  the  colonies 
had  incurred  debts,  and  great  disappointment  reigned, 
particularly  when  taxation  had  to  be  resorted  to.  Natu- 
rally, Leisler's  enemies  attempted  to  make  a  scapegoat  of 
him,  and  the  lieutenant-governor's  position  grew  more 
and  more  difiicult,  his  enemies  increasing  in  numbers  day 
by  day. 

The  end  of  the  year  1690  had  come,  and  the  home 
government,  refusing  to  recognize  Leisler's  services  to  the 
crown  and  colony,  appointed  a  new  governor  for  New 
York,  Colonel  Henry  Sloughter.  The  latter  had  set  out 


22  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

with  several  ships  and  a  respectable  number  of  troops,  but, 
to  make  confusion  worse  confounded,  a  storm  separating 
him  from  the  rest  of  the  ships,  the  second  in  command. 
Major  Richard  Ingoldsby,  arrived  in  New  York  before 
the  governor.  Leisler's  enemies  were  busy  winning  the 
favor  of  the  new  arrival,  and  the  demand  was  made  of 
Leisler  to  surrender  the  fort  at  once.  This  Leisler  refused 
to  do  until  confronted  with  the  documents  giving  In- 
goldsby authority.  But  the  papers  were  on  board  the  ab- 
sent ship,  and  Ingoldsby,  being  discredited,  felt  his  honor 
as  an  English  officer  insulted.  He  issued  a  proclamation, 
in  which  all  those  that  should  oppose  him  were  declared 
rebels,  and  all  good  people  were  summoned  to  his  assist- 
ance. Leisler,  a  few  days  after,  February  3,  1691,  pro- 
tested in  the  name  of  the  king  and  queen  against  all  the 
acts  of  Ingoldsby,  holding  him  accountable  for  all  acts  of 
violence  and  bloodshed  that  might  ensue,  declaring  at  the 
same  time  his  readiness  to  give  up  the  fort  to  the  new 
governor.  Colonel  Sloughter,  immediately  upon  his  arrival. 
Each  party  seemed  to  be  waiting  for  the  other  to  risk  a 
blow,  but  as  time  went  on,  it  was  apparent  that  Ingoldsby 
was  receiving  more  adherents  and  Leisler  as  constantly 
losing  friends.  Ingoldsby  next  attacked,  and  took  two 
blockhouses  with  their  garrisons,  located  north  of  Wall 
Street.  Leisler  was  now  confined  to  the  fort,  and,  as  be- 
fore, refused  to  give  it  up.  Such  was  the  condition  of 
affairs  until  the  arrival  of  Governor  Sloughter,  March  19, 
1691.  Both  parties  eagerly  awaited  the  new  governor 
as  a  deliverer  from  the  unfortunate  entans^lement.  But 
Sloughter  was  a  man  of  no  clear  vision  or  strength  of 
character,  and  even  his  friends  could  find  little  to  say  in 
his  behalf.  Upon  his  arrival  he  became  the  dupe  of  the 
aristocratic  party,  who  boarded  his  ship  to  inform  him  of 


IN  THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONIES       23 

the  condition  of  affairs.  There  Sloughter  appointed  his 
council.  Immediately  upon  arriving,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  he  demanded  the  keys  of  the  fort,  but  Leisler 
wished  first  an  understanding  as  to  the  terms  of  surrender, 
and  guarantees  for  his  security,  perhaps  distrustful  because 
the  messenger  whom  the  new  governor  had  sent  was 
Ingoldsby.  Sloughter  demanded  immediate  and  uncondi- 
tional surrender,  placed  Leisler's  messenger  under  arrest, 
and  on  the  20th  of  March  took  possession  of  the  fort.  He 
took  Bayard  and  Nicolls  out  of  prison,  while  Leisler  and 
eight  friends  of  the  council  had  to  take  their  places  in  the 
same  dungeon. 

The  condemnation  of  Leisler  aroused  general  horror. 
Such  severity  none  had  expected.  A  sham  trial  was  insti- 
tuted, in  which  Sloughter  appointed  Leisler's  personal 
enemies  as  his  judges,  viz. :  Bayard,  Nicolls,  Philipse,  and 
Van  Cortlandt,  together  with  four  Englishmen  who  had 
just  arrived.  Leisler  was  charged  with  rebellion,  confisca- 
tion of  property,  and  the  illegal  levying  of  taxes.  The 
other  councilors  were  set  free,  but  the  enemies  of  Leisler 
were  determined  to  be  revenged  upon  him.  Apparently 
Governor  Sloughter  hesitated  to  sign  a  death-warrant,  a 
spark  of  justice  glimmering  within  him.  A  tradition  is 
handed  down  that  the  aristocrats  steeped  the  governor  in 
wine  and  procured  his  signature  while  His  Excellency  was 
intoxicated.  Leisler,  previously  convicted  of  high  treason, 
was  accordingly  condemned  to  suffer  death,  together  with 
his  son-in-law,  Milborne.  The  accused  had  felt  so  sure  of 
the  justice  of  their  cause  that,  like  Egmont  and  Horn, 
they  refused  to  defend  themselves  against  the  charge  of 
treason.  The  sentence  occasioned  resentment  and  horror 
in  all  parts  of  the  colony,  and  many  of  the  followers  of 
Leisler  fled  into  neighboring  provinces,  fearing  similar 


24  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

charges  against  themselves.  A  popular  uprising  was  im- 
minent in  New  York  City.  Leisler's  enemies,  fearing  that 
he  might  still  be  set  free,  now  insisted  upon  the  fruits  of 
their  victory,  the  immediate  execution  of  their  victims. 
The  urgent  entreaties  of  Leisler's  friends  for  delay,  just 
as  in  the  case  of  Egmont,  only  hastened  the  execution. 
The  scaffold  was  erected  not  far  from  the  location  of  the 
present  Tombs,  on  the  corner  of  Pearl  and  Centre  streets. 
The  day.  May  16,  1691,  was  wet  and  cold,  and  chilled  the 
spectators  to  the  bone.  Leisler  made  an  address  to  the 
people,  in  which  he  resigned  himself  to  his  fate  with 
Christian  humility.  His  dying  request  to  his  friends  was 
that  they  should  forget  all  injury  done  to  himself  and 
Milborne,  and  honor  his  wish,  that  their  ashes  might 
destroy  all  vestiges  of  discord  and  dissension.  His  son- 
in-law,  Milborne,  called  out  to  his  enemy,  Livingstone, 
"  You  are  guilty  of  my  death  and  I  shall  accuse  you  be- 
fore the  eternal  judgment  seat "  ;  and  to  the  sheriff,  who 
ashed  him  if  he  would  not  bless  the  king  and  queen,  he 
said,  "  Why,  I  die  for  them  and  for  the  Protestant  religion, 
in  which  I  was  born  and  brought  up." 

The  blunder  of  this  execution  became  apparent  in  Eng- 
land after  the  son  of  Leisler  brought  the  case  into  the 
English  courts.  The  case  being  given  over  to  the  colonial 
ministrv,  the  latter  declared  that  the  deceased  had  been 
executed  justly,  but  begged  for  restitution  to  the  family 
of  their  property  and  position,  which  was  granted  in  1692. 
With  this  Leisler's  son  was  not  satisfied;  he  desired  not 
grace  but  justice,  and  after  several  years  more  of  conten- 
tion in  behalf  of  his  father's  memory,  the  English  Parlia- 
ment reversed  the  attainder  against  Leisler  and  Milborne, 
justified  Leisler's  actions  in  every  particular,  and  restored 
to  his  heirs  the  properties  confiscated  by  the  crown  (1695). 


IN  THE  ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONIES       25 

In  New  York,  the  two  parties,  the  popular  and  aristo- 
cratic, continued  to  exist,  and  after  the  governorship  of 
Sloughter,  of  Ingoldsby,  and  of  Fletcher  had  ended,  the 
popular  party  once  more  gained  the  ascendancy  under 
the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  who,  when  governor,  allowed  the 
remains  of  Leisler  and  Milborne  to  be  taken  from  their 
burial-place  under  the  gallows,  to  the  cemetery  of  the 
Dutch  Church  (in  the  present  Exchange  Place). ^  This  re- 
moval, in  1698,  was  an  occasion  of  much  solemnity,  fifteen 
hundred  persons  taking  part.  Prominent  contemporaries 
in  other  colonies  reo-arded  the  execution  of  Leisler  as 
eminently  unjust,  Increase  Mather,  for  instance,  declaring 
that  Leisler  was  "  barbarously  murdered." 

There  are  two  reasons  why  the  career  of  Leisler  stands 
out  conspicuously  in  American  history  :  first  and  foremost, 
because  he  was  the  man  who  called  tog-ether  the  first  con- 
gress  of  American  colonies ;  secondly,  because  he  was  the 
first  representative  of  the  popular  party  against  the  aristo- 
cratic element,  of  plebeian  against  patrician,  or  of  Demo- 
crat against  Tory.  Had  Leisler's  dreams  been  realized,  had 
he  received  due  supp(5rt  from  William  III,  hailed  as  their 
national  hero  by  the  Dutch  of  New  Amsterdam,  then 
Leisler  would  have  gone  down  in  history  as  the  first  great 
representative  of  popular  government  in  New  York."  His 
administration  might  have  been  signalized  as  a  long  stride 
advancing  toward  popular  government  in  the  colonies.  In 
view  of  these  facts,  this  man's  personality,  in  spite  of  his 
crudeness  and  stubbornness  bordering  on  fanaticism,  is 
worthy  of  the  highest  respect,  being  conspicuous  for  qual- 
ities since  then  always  highly  valued  in  public  life,  and 
repeatedly  honored  by  the  popular  vote,  viz.:  unques- 
tioned honesty  and  integrity,  unflinching  firmness  and 
1  Kapp,  p.  56.  2  cf .  Fiske,  vol.  ii,  p.  192. 


26  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

energy.  Experience  as  a  soldier  and  uncommon  success 
in  the  administration  of  afPairs  were  likewise  elements 
contributing  to  the  confidence  the  people  felt  in  him  as  a 
public  man. 

Some  of  Leisler's  descendants  were  also  prominent  in 
American  history.  Hester,  one  of  his  daughters,  married 
the  Dutchman  Rynders,  while  her  sister,  Mary,  widow  of 
Milborne,  became  the  wife  of  the  brilliant  young  Hugue- 
not, Abraham  Gouverneur.  Mary's  son,  Nicholas  Gouver- 
neur,  married  Hester's  daughter,  Gertrude  Rynders,  and 
a  son  of  this  marriage,  Isaac  Gouverneur,  was  the  grand- 
father of  Gouverneur  Morris,  one  of  the  ablest  members  of 
the  convention  that  framed  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States.  "This  eminent  statesman  was  thus  lineally  de- 
scended from  Jacob  Leisler  through  two  of  his  daugh- 
ters." ' 

Dwelling  with  the  Dutch  settlers  of  New  Amsterdam, 
there  was  undoubtedly  quite  a  sprinkling  of  Germans.  A 
good  example  is  that  of  Dr.  Hans  Kierstede,  who  came 
from  Magdeburg  in  1638  with  Director  Kief t.  He  was  the 
first  practicing  physician  and  surgeon  in  that  colony.  He 
married  Sarah  RoelofPse,  daughter  of  Roeloff  and  Anneke 
Janse,  the  owner  of  the  Annetje  Jans  farm  on  Manhattan 
Island.^ 

Among  the  German  settlers  of  the  seventeenth  century 
Minuit  and  Leisler  have  represented  the  type  of  the  soldier 
and  statesman,  while  the  "Dutch"  in  the  Jamestown  col- 
ony represented  the  humbler  class  of  artisans  or  laborers. 
A  third  class  of  pioneers  also  had  German  representatives, 

1  Fiske,  vol.  ii,  p.  187. 

3  Cf.  Schoonmaker,  The  History  of  Kingston,  N.  Y.,  p.  482.  1888.  Also 
Ruth  Putnam,  "  Annetje  Jans  Farm,"  in  Historic  New  Fork,  vol.  i,  p.  132, 
etc.  Putnam,  1897. 


IN  THE  ANGLO-AMERICAN  COLONIES       27 

namely,  the  explorers  and  discoverers.  Of  the  latter  there 
was  John  Lederer.  He  was  sent  on  three  different  ex- 
peditions by  Sir  William  Berkeley,  governor  of  the  colony 
of  Virginia,  to  explore  the  land  south  and  west  of  the 
James  River  during  the  years  1669-70.  From  his  map 
as  well  as  from  his  journal  we  gather  that  he  passed 
through  North  Carolina  and  proceeded  as  far  into  South 
Carolina  as  the  Santee  Kiver.  There  were  no  whites  then 
living  in  South  Carolina,  and  only  two  colonies  existing  in 
North  Carolina,  on  the  Albemarle  Sound  and  Cape  Fear 
River.  Lederer  wrote  his  journal  in  Latin.  Sir  William 
Talbot,  governor  of  Maryland,  who  translated  the  journal 
into  English,  speaks  highly  of  the  author's  literary  attain- 
ments. He  had  at  first  been  unfavorably  biased  by  evil 
stories  concerning  Lederer,  yet  found  him,  as  he  says,  "a 
modest,  ingenious  person  and  a  pretty  scholar,"  and  Le- 
derer vindicated  himself  "  with  so  convincinof  reason  and 
circumstance  that  removed  all  unfavorable  impressions." 

The  fact  is,  that  Lederer  had  not  been  well  received  by 
the  person  that  sent  him,  the  governor  of  Virginia,  owing 
to  prejudices  created  against  him  by  the  English  com- 
panions that  set  out  with  him  on  his  journey.  They  for- 
sook him  and  turned  back.  In  his  journal  Lederer  declares 
that  he  had  a  private  commission  from  the  governor  of 
Virginia  to  proceed,  though  the  rest  of  the  party  should 
abandon  him,  and  he  therefore  went  on  with  one  Susque- 
hanna Indian,  reaching  the  Santee  River  at  33^°  north  lati- 
tude. His  former  companions  returned  to  Virginia,  and, 
not  expecting  that  Lederer  would  ever  come  back,  they 
excused  themselves  by  false  reports  concerning  him. 

The  three  journeys  which  Lederer  made,  according  to 
his  journal,  were  first,  from  the  head  of  the  York  River 
due  west  to  the  Appalachian  Mountains ;  secondly,  from 


28  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  Falls  of  the  James  River,  west  and  southwest  into 
the  Carolinas ;  thirdly,  from  the  Falls  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock, west  to  the  mountains.  No  doubt  can  attach  to  the 
fact  of  these  early  western  explorations,  and  they  un- 
questionably had  a  good  effect.  The  tide  of  immigration, 
to  be  sure,  did  not  begin  to  flow  until  1680,  but  the 
direction  had  been  indicated. 

The  first  German  in  Texas  was  a  Wiirtemberger  by  the 
name  of  Hiens  (Heinz,  Hans).^  He  was  a  member  of  the 
expedition  of  La  Salle  in  1687,  that  vainly  sought  for  the 
delta  of  the  Mississippi,  with  a  fatal  result  for  the  leader. 
After  the  murder  of  La  Salle,  the  party  under  the  rule  of 
Duhaut  ranged  aimlessly  among  the  Indians  for  a  while, 
and  fell  in  with  some  deserters  of  La  Salle's  former  ex- 
pedition, now  living  among  the  savages.  One  of  these 
conspired  with  Hiens,  and  they  avenged  the  murder 
of  La  Salle  by  killing  Duhaut  and  Liotot.^  Hiens,  perhaps 
fearing  revenge,  left  the  expedition,  parting  amicably. 

Another  explorer,  the  earliest  of  the  three,  was  Peter 
Fabian,  a  Swiss  German,  member  of  the  expedition  sent 
out  in  1663  by  the  English  Carolina  Company  to  explore 
the  Carolinas.  The  report  of  the  expedition  was  probably 
written  by  Fabian,  the  scientific  man  of  the  party,  as  the 
distances  are  recorded  by  the  standard  of  the  German 
mile.  The  report  appeared  in  1665  in  London,  signed  by 
Anthony  Long,  William  Hilton,  and  Peter  Fabian.  It  was 
embodied  in  the  earliest  history  of  Carolina  by  John  Law- 
son,  London,  1709.^  In  the  latter  work  mention  is  made 
of  another  Swiss  German  explorer,  Francis  Louis  Mitschel 

'  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vi,  pp.  69-70.    Cincinnati,  1869-87,  18 
vols.  The  statement  is  there  made  on  the  authority  of  Louis  Hennepin. 
^  Justin  Winsor,  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America^  vol.  iv,  p.  238. 
3  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x  (1878),  p.  188. 


IN  THE   ANGLO-AMEKICAN   COLONIES       29 

(for  Michel),  described  as  sent  by  his  home  canton,  Bern, 
to  select  a  suitable  tract  for  a  Swiss  settlement,  and  as 
having,  during  several  years  of  exploration,  discovered 
large  areas  among  the  mountain  ranges  lying  toward  the 
headwaters  of  the  large  rivers  and  bays  of  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, and  Pennsylvania,  all  uninhabited  save  by  a  few 
savages/ 

The  foregoing  chapter  attempted  to  show  that,  while 
the  Germans  living  in  an  inland  country  were  not  seafar- 
ers or  discoverers,  their  scholarly  bent  made  them  leading 
cosmographers  during  the  period  of  American  exploration. 
German  settlers  appeared  even  in  the  earliest  colonies  on 
American  soil,  such  as  Port  Royal,  Jamestown,  and  New 
Amsterdam.  The  purchaser  and  first  governor  of  Man- 
hattan Island,  Peter  Minuit,  who  was  also  the  founder 
of  New  Sweden,  and  Jacob  Leisler,  martyr  to  the  cause 
of  popular  government  in  New  York,  were  Germans. 
Lederer,  Hiens,  and  Fabian  were  prominent  as  early  ex- 
plorers in  the  southern  and  southwestern  zone  of  English 
colonization  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

1  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x,  p.  189.  Quotation  from  Lawsou  (1709).  For 
Michel  see  also  below,  Chapter  viii,  p.  213. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   FIRST    PERMANENT    GERMAN    SETTLEMENT   AT 
GERMANTOWN,  1683 

William  Penn  in  Germany  —  The  Pietists  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main  — 
Francis  Daniel  Pastorius,  his  early  life  and  arrival  at  Philadelphia  — 
21ie  Concord,  the  Mayflower  of  the  Germans  —  Landing,  October  6, 1683 

—  Founding  of  Germantown,  Pennsylvania  —  Lidustries  and  Customs 

—  Pastorius  as  patriarch  and  scholar  —  Protest  against  slavery  —  The 
Mystics,  Kelpius  and  his  followers. 

The  first  German  settlement,  properly  so-called  because 
of  its  permanence  and  individuality,  began  near  the  close 
o£  the  seventeenth  century.  It  was  a  colony  of  religious 
refugees,  mainly  from  the  Palatinate,  who  settled  at  Ger- 
mantown, Pennsylvania,  in  1683.  The  name  of  William 
Penn  is  intimately  associated  with  its  beginnings.  Will- 
iam Penn,  clinging  to  his  faith  in  spite  of  imprisonment 
and  persecution,  was  enthused  with  missionary  zeal.  He 
made  two  journeys  into  Holland  and  Germany,  in  1671 
and  1677,  to  spread  Quaker  doctrines  on  the  continent 
of  Europe.  Only  three  denominations  were  recognized 
along  the  Rhine  and  in  Germany,  namely,  the  Catho- 
lic, the  Lutheran,  and  the  Reformed.  All  other  forms 
of  worship  were  outlawed,  and  their  votaries  placed  in 
the  same  class  with  heretics  and  atheists.  Such  were  the 
Mennonites,  of  whom  considerable  numbers  existed 
in  Western  Germany  and  Switzerland,  the  Schwenkfeld- 
ers  and  the  Quakers.  George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  had  sent  messengers  of  the  new  doc- 
trine to  the  Netherlands  and  Germany  as  early  as  1655, 


THE   FIRST  PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      31 

and  when  William  Penn  made  his  journeys,  a  small  Qua- 
ker community  was  still  in  existence  at  Kriegsheim  (or 
Krisheim),  near  Worms,  in  the  Palatinate.  In  Germany, 
the  Quakers  were  most  successful  among  the  Mennonites, 
especially  in  the  cities  of  Liibeck,  Emden,  Hamburg,  Cre- 
f  eld,  and  in  the  Palatinate,  so  also  in  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
cities,  Altona  and  Friedrichstadt,  and  in  Danzig,  then 
under  Polish  rule.  All  these  sectarians  suffered  much 
from  the  rulers  of  the  German  principalities,  each  of 
whom  had  the  right,  by  the  treaty  of  Westphalia,  to  es- 
tablish in  his  land  whatever  confession  he  pleased,  and  to 
exclude  all  others.  Even  the  Pietists,  who  were  but  Pro- 
testants with  a  greater  degree  of  inwardness  in  their  re- 
ligious life,  were  denounced  by  the  orthodox  churches  as 
dangerous  innovators.  The  Mystics,  who  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century  reappeared  in  various  forms, 
were  likened  unto  madmen. 

The  existence  of  these  various  sects,  and,  in  particular, 
the  Pietists  in  Germany,  had  prepared  the  ground  for  the 
sowing  of  such  principles  as  those  of  Penn,  for  indeed  a 
great  degree  of  similarity  existed  between  the  doctrines 
of  the  Pietist  and  Quaker.  A  higher  valuation  of  emo- 
tion and  spirituality,  as  opposed  to  rationalism  and  dogma, 
characterized  both  of  them ;  a  life  led  in  imitation  of  the 
Saviour,  a  communing  with  his  spirit,  a  religion  of  the 
heart,  supplanted  the  outward  ritualism  of  an  established 
church. 

The  second  journey  of  William  Penn,  in  1677,  was 
noteworthy  in  history,  disproportionately  to  the  number 
of  conversions  to  the  Society  of  Friends.  Although  Penn 
was  received  with  open  arms  in  the  Pietistic  circle  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  was  listened  to  with  reverence  and 
admiration  by  devoted  hearers  in  the  Rhine  country,  and 


32  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

could  count  among  his  disciples  some  German  women  of 
very  high  social  standing,  still  his  greatest  success,  un- 
known to  him,  was  of  another  kind.  William  Penn's 
journey  was  destined  to  begin  an  epoch  of  political  and 
social,  far  more  than  religious  movement,  for  it  stirred 
those  waves  of  immigration  that  threatened  to  depopulate 
southwestern  Germany  and  overrun  the  new  country  that 
William  Penn  was  about  to  open  up  for  colonization  on 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware.  Those  German  sectarians  who 
had  most  appreciated  his  simple  yet  eloquent  sermons  gave 
the  first  impetus  to  the  new  movement.  The  German 
and  Dutch  Mennonites  in  Crefeld  and  Krie2:sheim  had 
representatives  in  the  first  shipload  that  went  to  Penn's 
land. 

The  English  government  owed  Admiral  Penn,  father 
of  William  Penn,  the  sum  of  sixteen  thousand  pounds 
sterling,  for  services  and  the  advances  he  had  made.  In- 
stead of  payment  of  the  debt,  the  son  and  heir  accepted 
the  grant  of  a  large  stretch  of  country  north  of  Maryland, 
which  was  named  Pennsylvania.  This  included  the  land 
that  Peter  Minuit  had  selected  for  New  Sweden,  wisely 
considering  it  best  adapted  to  Germanic  immigration. 
The  royal  charter  was  issued  to  Penn  March  4,  1681, 
shortly  after  which  there  appeared  in  London  a  brief  de- 
scription of  the  new  province:  "Some  account  of  the 
Province  of  Pennsylvania  in  America,"  wherein  the 
favorable  location,  fertile  soil,  wealth  in  game  and  fish, 
as  well  as  other  circumstances  advantageous  to  immi- 
grants, were  duly  set  forth.  A  translation  of  this  book  ^ 
appeared  in  the  same  year  in  Amsterdam. 

*  The  title  was  Eine  Nachricht  toegen  der  Landschaft  Pennsylvania  in 
Amerika,  welche  jiingstens  unter  dem  groszen  Siegel  in  England  an  William 
Penn,  u.  s.  w.  iihergeben  warden.  Nebenst  beigefugtem  ehemaligem  Scbreiben 


THE   FIRST  PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      33 

The  same  persons  who  were  intimate  with  Penn  on  his 
journey  to  Germany,  in  1677,  became  acquainted  with 
this  book,  and  at  once  began  a  correspondence  with  his 
agent,  Benjamin  Furley.  They  formed  a  company  and 
bought  a  large  tract  of  land  in  Pennsylvania  for  the  pur- 
pose of  immigration.  In  1682  a  young  lawyer,  Francis 
Daniel  Pastorius,  returning  from  extensive  travels,  visited 
Frankfort-on-the-Main.  There  he  became  intimate  with 
the  noted  Pietistic  circle,  including  Dr.  Spener,  Dr. 
Schiitz,  the  notary  Fenda,  Jacob  Van  de  Walle,  Maxi- 
milian Lersner,  Eleonore  von  Merlau,  and  Maria  Juliana 
Bauer.  While  with  them  he  frequently  heard  mention  of 
the  name  of  William  Penn,  and  also  saw  letters  of  Benja- 
min Furley  and  the  printed  account  of  Penn's  province. 
They  soon  disclosed  the  secret  of  their  purchase  of  fifteen 
thousand  acres  in  that  remote  district,  and  the  purpose  of 
some  of  their  number  to  migrate  thither  with  their  fami- 
lies. "  This  begat,"  says  Pastorius,  ^'  a  desire  in  my  soul 
to  continue  in  their  society  and  with  them  to  lead  a  quiet, 
godly,  and  honest  life  in  a  howling  wilderness."  ^  These 
were  the  beginnings  of  the  Frankfort  Company,  that  later 
extended  its  purchases  to  twenty-five  thousand  acres,  a 
share  of  five  thousand  acres  costing  one  hundred  pounds. 
The  members  of  the  company  were  originally  Dr.  Schiitz, 
Jacob  Van  de  Walle,  Kaspar  Merian,  Wilhelm  Ueberfeldt, 
Daniel  Behagel,  all  of  Frankfort,  besides  Georg  Strausz, 
Johann  Laurentz,  and  Abraham  Hasevoet.  There  were 
several  changes  of  membership  in  course  of  time."  Though 

des  oberwiihnten  William  Penn.  In  Amsterdam  gedruckt  bei  Christoph 
Conraden,  1681.  The  same  book  was  also  printed  in  Frankfort  as  part  of 
the  larger  work  :  Diarium  Europaeum. 

'  Cf.  German  American  Antials,  vol.  v,  no.  5,  p.  288  ;  M.  D.  Learned,  The 
Life  of  Franz  Daniel  Pastorius,  Founder  of  Germantown. 

^  The   names  of  Merian,  Strausz,  Laurentz,  Ueberfeldt,  and   Hasevoet 


34  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

all  were  very  enthusiastic  about  the  plan  of  immigration, 
none  of  the  members  ever  came  to  America  with  the 
exception  of  Pastorius,  who  soon  was  appointed  agent  of 
the  company  in  America. 

The  first  actual  immigrants  were  Mennonites  from  Cre- 
feld,  some  of  whom  had  become  converts  to  Quakerism 
through  the  preaching  of  William  Penn,  while  most  of 
the  others  joined  the  Society  of  Friends  in  America.  There 
were  thirteen  heads  of  families,  the  greater  part  inter- 
related by  blood  or  marriage  ties.*  Pastorius,  acting  as  the 
agent  of  the  Frankfort  Company,  first  visited  Kriegsheim 
and  looked  after  matters  necessary  for  the  long  journey,^ 
with  the  leaders,  Peter  Schumacher,  Gerhard  Hendricks, 
and  others,  after  which  he  descended  the  Rhine  to  Crefeld. 
He  took  ship  in  advance  of  the  others,  and  landed  in 
Philadelphia  on  the  20th  of  August,  1683. 

Six  weeks  later,  Benjamin  Furley  had  arranged  at 
Rotterdam  for  the  transportation  of  the  first  shipload  of 
Germans.  The  Mayflower  of  the  German  immigrants  to 
America  was  the  good  ship  Concord,  appropriately  named, 

dropped  out,  their  shares  being  bought  by  Pastorius,  Eleonore  von  Merlau 
(who  had  now  become  the  wife  of  the  theologian  Petersen),  Balthasar 
Jawert,  and  Johann  Kembler  of  Liibeck,  and  Dr.  Gerhard  of  Maastricht 
(syndic  of  Bremen),  Johann  Lebriin  and  Thomas  Wylich  of  Wesel.  A 
number  of  these  were  acquainted  with  William  Penn, 

'  The  names  of  the  thirteen  heads  of  families  were  as  follows  :  Dirck, 
Abraham,  and  Hermann  Op  den  Graff,  Lenert  Arets,  Tuners  Kunders, 
Reinert  Tisen,  Wilhelm  Strepers,  Jan  Lensen,  Peter  Keurlis,  Jan  Simens, 
Johann  Bleikers,  Abraham  Tiines,  and  Jan  Liicken. 

The  Crefelders  had  bought  land  of  William  Penn  independently,  to  the 
extent  of  18,000  acres  :  Jacob  Telner  5000,  Jan  Strepers  5000,  Dirck  Sip- 
man  5000,  Govert  Remke  1000,  Jacob  Isaac  Van  Bebber  1000,  Lenert  Arets 
1000.  Sipman  and  Remke  did  not  emigrate;  Arets  in  1683,  Telner,  who  had 
previously  been  in  America,  1684,  Van  Bebber,  1687,  Jan  Strepers,  1691. 

^  The  immigrants  from  Kriegsheim  (Krisheim)  arrived  in  Pennsylvania 
later  ;  the  first  to  arrive,  in  1685,  were  Peter  and  Isaac  Schumacher  and 
Gerhard  Hendricks. 


THE  FIRST   PERMANENT  SETTLEMENT      35 

being-  the  bearer  of  a  devoutly  religious  and  peaceful  com- 
23any  to  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love,  within  the  territory 
of  the  Holy  Experiment.  Captain  Jeffreys  commanded 
the  Concord,  a  well-built  and  roomy  vessel  of  the  West  Li- 
dian  service.  Five  pounds,  one-half  fare  for  children  under 
twelve,  was  the  rate  for  which  they  were  carried  over. 
They  left  Gravesend  July  24,  1683,  and  arrived  in  Phil- 
adelphia after  a  moderately  long  but  safe  journey,  on  Oc- 
tober 6,  1683,  the  date  celebrated  by  all  Germans  in 
America  as  the  beginning  of  their  history  in  the  United 
States. 

Pastorius,  who  had  sailed  six  weeks  before  from  Deal, 
England,  was  accompanied  by  a  handful  of  immigrants, 
men  and  women  of  the  serving  class,  some  of  whom  later 
became  property  holders  in  German  town.*  On  board  ship 
Pastorius  met  one  who  immediately  became  his  fast  friend, 
the  Welsh  physician,  Thomas  Lloyd,  scholar  of  Jesus  Col- 
lege, Oxford.^  With  him  he  conversed  in  Latin,  a  charac- 
teristic accomplishment  of  the  scholars  of  that  day,  Lloyd 
not  being  able  to  speak  German,  nor  Pastorius  to  converse 
in  English  at  that  time. 

In  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love,  William  Penn  received 
the  German  pioneer  with  loving  kindness.  Another  close 
friend  was  Penn's  secretary,  Lehenmann.  "  The  governor 
often  summons  me  to  dine  with  him  "  (Penn),  wrote  Pas- 
torius subsequently.  "As  I  was  recently  absent  from 
home  a  week,  he  came  himself  to  visit  me  and  bade  me 
dine  with  him  twice  every  week,  and  declared  to  his  coun- 

'  Their  names  were  :  James  Schumacher,  Georg  Wertmiiller,  Isaac 
Dilbeck,  his  wife  and  two  boys  (Abraham  and  Jacob),  Thomas  Gasper, 
Conrad  Bacher  (alias  Rutter),  and  an  English  maid,  Frances  Simpson.  The 
ship  was  called  America,  Captain  Wasey.  Cf.  Seideusticker,  Bilder  aus  der 
deutscJi-pennsylvanischen  Geschichte,  p.  38. 

^  Later,  president  of  the  Provincial  Council;  died  in  1694. 


36  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

sellers  that  he  loved  me  and  the  High  Germans  very 
much  and  wished  them  to  do  so  likewise."  The  city  of 
Philadelphia  had  been  laid  out  but  two  years  before 
and  consisted  then  of  a  few  poorly  built  houses.  "  The 
rest,"  Pastorius  remarked,  "was  woods  and  brushwood, 
in  which  I  lost  my  way  several  times  in  an  area  no  greater 
than  that  between  the  river  bank  and  the  house  of  my 
friend,  William  Hudson.  A  striking  impression  this  made 
upon  me,  coming  from  London,  Paris,  Amsterdam,  and 
Ghent." 

After  the  Co?icord  arrived,  the  first  problem  was  to  se- 
lect a  location  for  the  German  colonists.  They  had  pur- 
chased the  right  of  occupying  in  all  forty-three  thousand 
acres,^  and  asked  for  a  site  on  a  navigable  river,  as  their 
contract  demanded.  But  since  Penn  was  not  willins:  to 
carry  out  the  latter  condition,"  they  finally  found  available 
a  tract  about  six  miles  above  Philadelphia,  which  is  at 
present  in  the  twenty-second  ward  of  the  city  and  bears 
still  the  original  name  of  Germantown.^  Pastorius  recorded 
in  his  "  Grund  und  Lagerbuch  "  that  "  the  hardships  and 
trials  of  the  early  settlers  were  great,  only  equalled  by  their 
Christian  endurance  and  indefatigable  industry,  so  that 
Germantown  in  the  early  days  could  well  be  called '  Armen- 
town,'  *  '  the  city  of  the  poor.' "  Of  his  temporary  dwelling 
Pastorius  tells  us  it  was  thirty  feet  long  and  fifteen  broad, 
and  the  windows,  because  of  the  lack  of  glass,  were  of 
paper  soaked  with  oil ;  but  over  the  house-door  was  writ- 

i  Including  25,000  acres  purchased  by  the  Frankfort  Company,  and  18,000 
by  the  Crefelders. 

^  For  a  detailed  account  of  Penn's  position,  cf.  German  American  Annals, 
vol.  V,  no.  6,  pp.  334-341. 

^  The  date  for  the  laying-out  of  the  township  was  October  24,  1683. 

*  Germantown  was  probably  pronounced  Jarmantown,  when  Armentown, 
"  the  town  of  the  poor,"  would  rhyme  with  it. 


THE   FIEST   PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      37 


ten  a  symbol  of  the  good  cheer  within :  "  Parva  domus 
sed  arnica  bonis,  procul  este  prophani."  ^ 

The  first  settlers  were  mostly  weavers  from  Crefeld. 
Their  industry  soon  led  to  the  opening  of  a  store  in  Phil- 
adelphia, for  the  sale  of  their  wares.  Many  had  also  been 
accustomed  to  growing  the  vine,  and  when  they  saw  the 
wild  grape,  they  grew  hopeful  of  establishing  vineyards. 
The  people  of  Germantown  raised  flax  with  great  success, 
for  Pastorius  tells  us  that  the  prosperity  of  the  young 
city  was  largely  due  to  flax-spinning  and  weaving.  There 
came  many  accessions  from  Crefeld,  Miihlheim,  and  Kriegs- 
heim,  such  colonists  as  Captain  John  Smith  would  have 
welcomed  in  Jamestown,  mostly  tradesmen,  weavers,  tail- 
ors, shoemakers,  locksmiths,  and  carpenters,  who  along 
with  their  trades  also  applied  themselves  to  cultivating  the 
soil.  As  early  as  November,  1684,  there  was  a  sale  at  the 
Philadelphia  store,  over  which  Pastorius  was  overseer,  in 
the  interests  of  the  Frankfort  Company.  Small  were  the 
beginnings,  to  be  sure,  the  sales  of  the  first  year  amount- 
ino"  to  only  ten  dollars,  for  the  times  were  hard,  and  the 
new  immigrants  were  generally  supplied  with  clothes  enough 
to  last  them  for  several  years.  But  soon  the  reputation  of 
the  well-woven  goods  of  Germantown  spread  far  and  wide, 
and  there  was  a  large  demand  for  them,  coming  from  the 
outside,  resulting  in  increased  industrial  activity.^ 

1  Pastorius  himself  translates  the  motto  into  German  :  — 

Klein  ist  mein  Haus, 

Doch  Gute  sieht  es  gem, 

Wer  gottlos  ist,  der  bleibe  fern. 

"  Whereat  the  Governor,  Penn,  when  he  visited  it,  enjoyed  a  hearty  laugh 
and  encouraged  me  to  continue  building." 

2  William  Bradford,  1692,  printed  a  poem  by  Richard  Frame,  "  A  Short 
Description  of  Pennsylvania,"  in  which  occur  the  lines  :  — 

The  German  Town  of  which  I  spoke  before. 
Which  is  at  least  in  length  one  mile  and  more, 


38  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Germantown  has  the  honor  of  estabhshingthe  first  paper 
mill  in  the  colonies.  Wilhelm  Ruttinghausen  (Rittenhouse) 
of  Arnheim,  Holland,  with  his  two  sons,  Glaus  and  Ger- 
hard, settled  on  a  brook  running  into  the  Wissahickon, 
and  there  built  a  paper  mill  in  1690.  The  art  of  making 
paper  was  a  family  possession,  their  ancestors  having 
already  distinguished  themselves  therein  at  home.  The 
paper  was  of  excellent  quality  and  the  business,  later  in 
Glaus  Ruttinghausen's  charge,  expanded  to  an  extraor- 
dinary degree. 

In  a  few  years  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  German- 
town  had  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  additions  were 
made  to  the  town.  Krisheim  (Kriegsheim)  with  884  acres, 
Sommerhausen  with  900,  Grefeld  with  1166  were  added 
to  the  2750  acres  of  Germantown.  All  these  places  were 
on  the  same  road,  Germantown  being  the  southernmost, 
nearest  to  Philadelphia,  while  Grefeld  was  beyond  Ghest- 
nut  Hill,  in  the  present  Montgomery  Gounty.  In  German- 
town,  the  road,  sixty  feet  broad,  ran  through  the  middle 
of  the  straggling  city  and  was  bordered  by  peach  trees. 
Each  dwelling  had  a  vegetable  and  flower  garden  of  three 
acres  attached  to  it.  A  cross-street,  forty  feet  in  width, 
cut  the  principal  street  at  right  angles  and  at  the  crossing 
there  was  an  open  market- j^lace.  The  fields  lay  north  and 
south  of  the  city.  In  a  remarkably  short  time  the  stillness 
of  the  primeval  forest  was  broken  by  the  droning  noise  of 
mill-wheels,  the  whirring  of  the  weaver's  shuttle,  and  the 
merry  shouts  of  blue-eyed  children.  The  forests  were  re- 
placed by  orchards,  vineyards,  and  vegetable  gardens 
dotted  with  flowers  and  beehives.    Pastorius  himself,  like 

Where  live  High  German  people  and  Low  Dutch, 
Whose  trade  in  weaving  Linnin  cloth  is  much ; 
There  grows  the  flax.  .  .  . 

Seidensticker,  p.  50. 


THE   FIRST  PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      39 

many  a  "Latin  farmer"  of  the  later  periods,  seeing  the 
busy  tradesmen  and  agriculturists  about  him,  regretted 
the  uselessness  of  book-learning,  declaring  mournfully, 
"  never  have  metaphysics  and  Aristotelian  logic  made  of  a 
savage  a  Christian,  far  less  earned  a  loaf  of  bread." 

Germantown  was  incorporated  as  a  town  on  August  12, 
1689.  The  first  burgomaster  was  Pastorius,  and  he  served 
in  the  same  capacity  in  1692,  1696,  and  1697.  At  other 
times  he  was  generally  city  clerk,  or  scrivener,  for  which 
office  his  skillful  and  accurate  pen  well  qualified  him.  Other 
burgomasters  were  Dirck  Op  den  GraefP,  Arnold  Cassel, 
Reinert  Tisen,  Daniel  Falckner.  A  public  ofiice  was  felt 
to  be  a  burden  in  the  idyllic  days  of  Germantown,  though 
the  terms  of  office  were  not  long.  A  Mennonite  might, 
because  of  his  religion,  be  excused  from  holding  office,  but 
otherwise  a  citizen  was  fined  three  pounds  on  refusal  to 
accept  an  election.*  Pastorius  wrote  in  1703  to  William 
Penn,  complaining  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  his  people 
to  serve  as  public  officers,  and  expressing  the  hope  that 
the  arrival  of  new  immig'rants  mio;ht  relieve  the  situation. 
Fines  and  importations  becoming  necessary  to  secure  office- 
holders, seems  an  embarrassment  almost  inconceivable 
to  later  generations  of  men,  yet  this  historical  fact  empha- 
sizes a  trait  often  exhibited  by  the  Germans  in  the  United 
States.^ 

Just  as  Germantown  in  its  early  period  was  not  trou- 
bled with  office-seekers,  so  criminals  were  rare  within  its 
hallowed  precincts.  Sessions  of  court  took  place  every  six 
weeks,  and  frequently  they  were  adjourned  because  there 

*  December  1,  1694,  Paul  Wulff  was  elected  clerk,  but  declining  without 
good  cause,  he  was  fined  three  pounds  by  the  General  Court.  Cf.  German 
American  Annals,  N.  S.,  vol.  vi,  no.  1,  p.  10. 

^  Cf.  Part  II,  Chapter  IV,  "Political  Influence  of  the  German  Element  in 
the  United  States." 


40  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

was  notliing  to  do.  Routine  business,  sales,  purchases,  con- 
tracts, etc.,  were  but  rarely  interrupted  by  punishments, 
fines  at  the  worst,  for  the  neglect  of  fences,  concerning 
which  Germantown  citizens  were  very  particular  (an  ex- 
ample of  speedy  Americanization,  since  they  had  no  fences 
at  home),  or  for  allowing  cattle  to  stray,  or  for  an  occa- 
sional case  of  drunkenness.  The  records,  by  accident  per- 
haps, tell  us  that  beer  was  brewed  in  the  early  days  of 
Germantown.  Peter  Keurlis,  in  May,  1695,  was  sum- 
moned before  court,  because  he  had,  on  an  inn-keeper's 
license,  kept  a  saloon.  He  was  the  same  that  had  been 
granted  the  privilege  of  selling  a  quantity  of  beer  brewed 
for  a  fair  that  had  not  been  held.^  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  law-makers  of  Germantown  restricted  the  sale  of 
intoxicants,  limiting  the  same  purchaser  during  a  half-day 
to  a  quarter  of  a  pint  of  rum  or  a  quart  of  beer.  It  must 
not  be  supposed,  however,  that  Germantown  was  the  scene 
of  frequent  intoxication.  In  half  a  dozen  years  hardly  a 
single  case  of  drunkenness  was  recorded,  though  every 
detail  seems  to  have  been  put  down,  as  for  instance,  when 
Miiller  was  imprisoned  for  wishing  to  smoke  one  hundred 
pipes  of  tobacco  in  one  day  as  the  result  of  a  wager,  or 
when  Caspar  Karsten  called  the  policeman  a  rogue. ^ 

In  the  year  1693  Pastorius  and  Peter  Schumacher  were 
commissioned  to  procure  stocks  for  the  public  punishment 
of  offenders.  Very  little  use  seems  to  have  been  made  of 
them.  Again,  in  the  minutes  of  1697,  we  read  that  Arndt 
Klincken  gave  his  old  house  for  use  as  a  prison.  No  more 
convincing  proof,  however,  of  the  Arcadian  conditions  of 
this  early  German  settlement  could  be  cited  than  the  min- 

*  This  happened  in  November,  1695.  Peter  Keurlis  was,  in  all  probabil- 
ity, the  first  beer-brewer  in  the  American  colonies. 

2  See  Seidensticker,  chap,  viii,  "Aiis  der  Gerichtsstube,"  Bilder  aus  der 
deutsch-pennsylvanischen  Geschichte,  pp.  59-02. 


THE   FIRST   PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      41 

ute :  "All  crimes  that  have  been  committed  previous  to 
this  date  are  to  be  forgiven,  but  whatever  evil  happens 
henceforward  shall  be  punished."  ^ 

A  court  seal  being  found  desirable,  Pastorius  was  com- 
missioned to  prepare  the  design.  He  selected  a  clover  leaf 
on  the  three  leaves  of  which  were  sketched  respectively 
a  vine,  a  flax  blossom,  and  a  weaver's  shuttle,  with  the 
motto  :  "  Vinum,  Linum  et  Textrinum."  ^  Annual  fairs 
were  held  in  1701  or  before,  and  semi-annual  fairs  in 
1702,  1704,  and  continuously  thereafter  in  the  spring 
and  autumn.^ 

Pastorius  had  frequently  desired  to  lay  down  the  cares 
of  public  office,  and  when  the  Frankfort  Company  in  time 
relieved  him,  the  result  was  not  altogether  favorable  to 
the  company's  interests.  It  was  in  January,  1700,  when 
Daniel  Falckner,  Johann  Kelpius,  and  Johann  Jawert 
were  appointed  agents  of  the  company  with  full  power. 
Kelpius,  hermit  and  mystic,  was  not  concerned  with  the 
affairs  of  this  world.  Falckner  was  a  mischief  maker,  and 
Jawert,  the  only  happy  choice  among  the  three,  was  an 
honest  man  imposed  upon.^    In  October,  1701,  Falckner 

'  Minutes  of  the  year  1697'.  See  Seidensticker,  supra,  chap,  vii,  p.  55. 
"Alle  Strafen,  welche  gefallen  sein  in  vorige  Zeit,  soUen  alle  vergebeu  sein, 
aber  was  nun  fortau  vorfallt,  soil  exekutirt  werden." 

2  Pastorius  translates  this,  "  Der  Wein,  der  Lein  und  der  Webeschrein," 
in  order  to  denote,  as  he  declared,  that  in  Germantown  the  principal  occupa- 
tions were  :  viniculture,  flax-growing,  and  textile  industries.  Another  trans- 
lation has  been  made  by  Seidensticker,  to  the  effect  that  agriculture,  manu- 
factures, and  the  merry  enjoyment  of  life  were  in  Germantown  and  have 
been  for  two  centuries  thereafter,  in  the  United  States,  the  characteristic 
modes  of  activity  of  the  German  immigrants. 

^  Perhaps  the  county  fair  which  has  come  down  to  us  is  a  survival  of  the 
Pennsylvania  German  "  Jahrmarkt." 

*  Sachse,  German  Sectarians  of  Pennsylvania,  gives  a  very  sympathetic 
account  of  Daniel  Falckner,  who  is  generally,  perhaps,  not  given  entire 
justice.  His  service  to  Germantown  was  to  stir  it  up  out  of  its  ruts,  and  to 
the  Frankfort  Company  to  insist  on  the  measuring  of  the  remaining  22,025 


42  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

and  Jawert,  as  agents,  energetically  pressed  the  claim  for 
the  land  to  which  the  Frankfort  Company  was  entitled  by 
the  terms  of  the  original  purchase.  This  tract  of  twenty- 
two  thousand  and  twenty-five  acres,  when  assigned,  was 
located  in  the  northwestern  part  of  Montgomery  County, 
New  Hanover  Township,  on  the  Manatawny  River,  which 
flows  into  the  Schuylkill  at  Pottstown.  It  became  known 
as  Falckner's  Swamp,  and  later  was  sold  to  Joliann  Hen- 
rich  Sprogel,  at  a  ridiculously  low  figure.  The  sale  was 
concluded  by  Falckner,  who,  it  seems,  owed  ^  Sprogel 
some  money,  while  Jawert  was  duped,  or  kept  unin- 
formed. Jawert  complained  that  he  had  not  been  con- 
sulted in  this  somewhat  obscure  transaction. 

A  panic  was  caused  by  the  adventurer  Sprogel,  in  1708, 
when  he  attempted  to  dispossess  a  great  many  of  the  Ger- 
mantown  settlers  of  their  lands,  claiming  that  he  owned 
the  only  correct  title  by  virtue  of  his  purchase  of  the 
Frankfort  Company's  rights.  The  settlers  appealed  to  Pas- 
torius,  who  was  always  the  deliverer  in  time  of  trouble, 
and  Pastorius  hastened  to  Philadelphia.  He  found  that 
"  all  of  the  lawyers  of  the  city  were  feed,"  which  meant 
that  all  four  of  the  lawyers  residing  in  Philadelphia  had 
been  engaged  in  behalf  of  Sprogel's  side  of  the  case. 
Pastorius,  not  affluent  enough  to  import  an  advocate  from 
New  York,  consulted  his  friend,  James  Logan,  and  with 

acres,  which,  however,  he  lost  again  for  the  company,  through  sale.  Daniel 
Falckner's  later  career  was  a  useful  one,  as  pioneer  and  minister  in  New 
Jersey  and  New  York.  He  had  also  been  the  founder  of  the  first  Lutheran 
church  in  Falckner's  Swamp  district  (Manatawny).  Daniel  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  Justus  Falckner,  ordained  in  the  Swedish  Lutheran  church  at 
Wicacoa,  and  beloved  minister  in  New  York  and  along  the  Hudson,  1703  -23. 
His  brother  Daniel  then  served  his  parish  for  a  short  time,  until  Pastor 
Berkenmeyer  came. 

1  Cf.  "The  Case  of  the  Frankfort  Company's  Business  briefly  stated" 
(by  Pastorius),  German  American  Annals,  vol.  v,  no.  6,  pp.  353  ff. 


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FACSIMILE   OF  TITLE-PAGE    OF   PASTORIUS'  BEEHIVE 


THE  FIRST   PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      43 

the  straightforward  testimony  of  Jawert,  the  injustice  of 
the  plot  was  exposed  and  the  difficulties  removed.  While 
the  settlers  of  Germantown  retained  their  rights  to  their 
property,  Sprogel  remained  in  possession  of  Falckner's 
Swamp,  which  was  by  no  means  what  the  name  implies, 
but  good  land,  constituting,  as  above  stated,  the  remain- 
ing portion  of  the  Frankfort  Company's  land,  about  seven 
eighths  of  the  twenty-five  thousand  acres  originally  pur- 
chased from  William  Penn. 

Germantown  maintained  its  independent  government 
until  1707.  In  that  year  George  Lowther,  the  queen's 
attorney,  summarily  dismissed  the  town's  court  and  the 
newly  elected  officers.  There  were  mild  protests,  but  no 
serious  regrets,  since  the  citizens  of  Germantown  were 
thereby  relieved  of  at  least  one  tax,  having  previously,  in 
spite  of  their  complaints,  been  required  to  pay  a  three- 
fold tax,  viz. :  for  the  province,  for  the  county  Phil- 
adelphia, and  for  their  own  municipality.  When  the  old 
accounts  were  closed,  the  treasury  of  Germantown  still 
owed  Pastorius  two  pounds  fourteen  shillings,  and,  judg- 
ing by  the  carefully  kept  books  of  Pastorius,  that  debt 
was  never  paid.  This  is  an  illustration  among  many  of  the 
unselfishness  with  which  Pastorius  did  his  work.  He  was 
in  every  respect  a  public-spirited  man,  the  "  Bradford  "  of 
Germantown,  and  it  is  well  to  pause  a  moment  for  closer 
acquaintance  with  this  interesting  man.^ 

Franz  Daniel  Pastorius  was  born  in  Sommerhausen,  in 
1651,  the  son  of  a  jurist  of  prominence.  He  studied  at 
the  Universities  of  Altdorf,  Strassburg,  Basel,  and  Jena. 
Besides  his  special  training  in  law  and  theology  he  was 

*  Seidensticker,  Bilder  aus  der  deutsch-pennsylvanischen  Geschichte,  iv,  xi, 
u.  xii,  Abschnitt.  An  exhaustive  treatment  of  Pastorius'  life  and  work,  by 
Professor  M.  D.  Learned,  has  appeared  in  German  American  Annals, 
vols.  V  and  vi. 


44  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

a  polylingaist,  and  probably  no  man  among  his  contempo- 
raries in  America  was  his  equal,  certainly  not  his  superior, 
in  classical  culture  and  encyclopsedic  learning.  He  was 
remarkable  as  a  statistician,  noting  every  fact  of  knowledge 
or  experience  with  characteristic  accuracy  and  neatness, 
an  evidence  of  which  is  his  scrap-book  called  the  "  Bee- 
hive," still  preserved  and  treasured  by  his  descendants/ 
Of  his  other  works  the  best  known  is  his  description  of 
Pennsylvania,  a  collection  of  his  letters  and  reports,  sent 
to  his  father,  Melchior  Adam  Pastorius,  and  by  him  col- 
lected in  book  form  and  published  in  1700.^ 

But  better  than  his  learning,  that  if  chronicled  at  the 
present  day  might  smack  of  pedantry  (if  not  put  us  to 
shame),  was  his  exemplary  character.  He  was  the  main- 
stay of  the  colony,  the  chief  cause  of  its  initial  success. 
The  prosperity  of  Germantown  was  his  life-work,  exclud- 
ing ever  the  thought  of  personal  gain,  or  the  feverish 
appetite  for  land  speculation.  He  served  the  colony  as 
burgomaster  and  town  clerk,  and  at  all  times  as  notary, 
his  handwriting  being  visible  in  all  public  and  private 
documents,  for  which  he  exacted  fees  lamentably  small. 
Nevertheless  he  was  self-respecting,  and  while  not  wealthy, 
was  able  at  his  death,  in  1719,  to  leave  his  widow  and 

1  Exact  title  :  Francis  Daniel  Pastorius,  His  Hive,  Beestock  (Bienenstock), 
Melliotrophium,  Alvear  or  Rusca  Apum ;  begun  A.  D.  1696.  Most  of  the 
matter  is  written  in  English,  for  Pastorius  had  gained  a  mastery  of  the  lan- 
guage. Historical,  literary,  geographical,  didactic,  sententious,  and  epi- 
grammatic articles  and  notes  to  the  number  of  5000  are  loosely  strung 
together.  Verses  (doggerel,  more  strictly  speaking),  in  English,  Latin,  Ger- 
man, French,  Dutch,  Italian,  vary  the  monotony  of  this  queer  hive  of 
pedantic  learning.  A  facsimile  of  one  of  the  pages  is  reproduced  in  Ameri- 
cana Germanica,  vol.  i,  part  4,  and  copious  extracts  are  published  in  vols,  i 
and  ii. 

^  Umstdndige  Geographische  Beschreihung  der  zu  allerletzt  Erfundene 
Provintz  Pennsylvania  an  denen  End-Grantzen  Americae  in  der  West-Welt 
gelegen.  Frankfurt  und  Leipzig,  1700. 


THE   FIRST  PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      45 

two  sons  a  respectable  property.  Besides  being  a  public 
officer  in  Germantown,  and  a  member  of  the  assembly 
(which  with  the  provincial  council  was  the  legislative 
power  of  the  colonial  government)  in  1687  and  1691,  he 
was  the  leader  in  educational  matters. 

In  1698  he  was  called  to  the  Quaker  School  in  Phil- 
adelphia, which  he  served  until  1700.  Two  years  after, 
when  a  school  was  established  in  Germantown,  Pastorius 
became  its  head.  The  latter,  a  coeducational  institution, 
was  supported  by  a  fixed  rate,  four  to  sixpence  a  week  as 
the  scholar's  fee,  while  several  citizens  besides  made  volun- 
tary contributions.  A  night  school  was  established  for 
such  as  labored  during  the  day  or  were  too  far  advanced 
in  years  for  the  day  school. 

However  distinct  and  valuable  were  the  material  con- 
tributions, such  as  its  agriculture,  its  paper  manufacture, 
its  weaving  and  milling  industries,  the  German  settle- 
ment in  colonial  Pennsylvania  was  still  more  remarkable 
for  another  feature,  —  a  monument  built  more  endur- 
ing than  brass,  erected  for  the  cause  of  humanity,  that 
will  make  Germantown  forever  memorable  in  the  annals 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  This  was  German- 
town's  protest  against  negro  slavery,  made  in  the  year 
1688,  the  first  formal  action  ever  taken  against  the 
barter  in  human  flesh  within  the  boundaries  of  the  United 
States.^  The  system  of  negro  slavery  was  repulsive  to 
the  German  settlers  from  the  very  start,  and  they  were 
shocked  to  find  that  the  Quakers  remained  indifferent 
toward  this  criminal  abuse.  They  failed  to  understand  how 
the  Quakers  could  harmonize  slavery  with  their  religion, 

'  E.  Bettle,  in  his  Notices  of  Negro  Slavery  in  America :  "To  this  body  of 
humble,  unpretending  and  almost  unnoticed  philanthropists  belongs  the  honor 
of  having  been  the  first  association  who  ever  remonstrated  against  Negro 
slavery."  Quoted  by  Seidensticker,  supra,  p.  67. 


46  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

and  hoping  to  awaken  them  from  their  stupor,  the  German 
settlers  appealed  to  the  Quakers'  sense  of  honor,  their 
pride  and  vaunted  humanity.  The  protest  had  its  origin 
in  a  gathering  of  Germans  who  met  on  the  18th  of  April, 
1688,  in  Germantown.  A  document,  still  preserved,  was 
drawn  up,  in  the  handwriting  of  Pastorius,  and  signed  by 
Garret  Hendericks,  Franz  Daniel  Pastorius,  Dirck  Op  den 
Graeff,  and  Abraham  Op  den  Graeff.  Addressed  to  the 
monthly  meeting  of  the  Quakers,  about  to  take  place 
in  Richard  Worrell's  house,  Lower  Dublin,  its  design  was 
to  bring  the  matter  of  slavery  before  that  gathering  for 
debate  and  action.  The  monthly  gathering  of  the  30th  of 
April  deemed  the  matter  of  such  importance  that  they 
could  not  pretend  to  take  action  upon  it.  They  referred  it 
to  the  quarterly  meeting,  as  the  content  of  the  protest 
"  was  quite  in  accord  with  the  truth."  The  quarterly 
meeting,  held  in  June,  acted  similarly,  considering  the 
case  too  important  for  their  action  and  appointing  a  com- 
mittee to  lay  the  protest  before  the  annual  meeting,  the 
highest  tribunal  of  the  Quakers.  The  annual  meeting  oc- 
curred in  the  same  year,  when  "  the  document  protesting 
against  the  buying  and  keeping  of  negro  slaves,  received 
from  several  German  Friends,"  was  acknowledged,  but  it 
was  voted  not  fitting  for  the  association  to  pass  definite  judg- 
ment upon  the  matter,  since  it  stood  in  intimate  relation 
with  other  affairs.  The  whole  matter  was  laid  on  the  table 
for  the  nonce,  a  diplomatic  evasion.  Seventeen  years  later 
the  Quakers  did  make  resolutions  against  the  slave  trade, 
and  in  1770  the  Friends  were  advised  never  to  appoint 
slaveholders  as  overseers.  The  German  Quakers  may  be 
considered  the  radical  wing  of  the  Quakers  at  that  early 
period,  on  the  question  of  abolition. 

The  settlement  of  Germantown  remained  a  German  city. 


OF  THE 
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THE   FIRST  PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      47 

William  Penn  had  preached  there  in  the  German  language 
in  1683,  and  in  1793  President  Washington  attended  a 
German  service  in  the  Reformed  church,  the  epidemic  of 
yellow  fever  in  Philadelphia  compelling  him  to  remove  his 
residence  for  a  time  to  Germantown.  The  city  became 
ever  more  prominent  as  the  base  for  distribution  of  Ger- 
man immigration  to  the  counties  of  Montgomery,  Berks, 
Lebanon,  York,  Bucks,  Lehigh,  and  Northampton.  It 
long  remained  the  centre  of  German  culture,  whence  books 
and  German  newspapers  were  distributed  to  German  coun- 
ties and  settlements.  The  printing-press  of  Christopher 
Sauer,  that  remained  in  operation  for  a  period  of  forty 
years,  will  be  mentioned  later.^  The  industrial  activities 
and  the  semi-annual  fairs  of  Germantown,  the  latter 
planned  for  both  business  and  pleasure,  served  as  models 
for  other  settlements.  Such  was  Germantown  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  the  nineteenth,  the  rural  charm  of 
the  location  began  to  attract  the  wealthy  citizens  of  Phil- 
adelphia. The  original  aspect  of  the  place  was  lost,  and 
even  the  names  of  the  pioneers,  as  Liicken,  Schumacher, 
Jansen,  Kunders,  survive  only  in  an  English  disguise,  as 
Lukens,  Shoemaker,  Johnson,  Conrads,  many  of  the 
present  inhabitants  knowing  naught  of  their  German 
orio;in. 

In  concluding  this  chapter  on  the  Germantown  settle- 
ment, a  serious  omission  would  be  the  failure  to  note  the 
arrival  of  a  group  of  men,  who  were  noted  as  Mystics. 
Their  leader  was  Johann  Kelpius ;  others  were  Koster, 
Falckner,  Seelig,  and  Matthai.  They  believed  in  bodily 
translation  to  realms  beyond  at  the  moment  of  death,  con- 
ditioned on  their  keeping  firmly  attached  to  their  faith. 
Bearing  the  conviction  that  the  world  was  coming  to  a 

>  See  Chapter  v,  pp.  143-146. 


48  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

speedy  end,  their  purpose  was  to  await  the  Judgment 
Day  in  the  wilderness  of  North  America,  where  they 
might,  during  their  last  years,  be  in  closer  communion 
with  the  Divine  Spirit.  Magister  Johann  Jacob  Zimmer- 
mann  was  the  real  founder  of  this  chapter  of  Mystics. 
One  of  the  best  mathematicians  and  astronomers  of 
Europe,  he  died  at  Rotterdam  on  the  eve  of  embarkation 
for  America,  in  1693.  According  to  Zimmermann's  calcu- 
lations the  millennium  was  to  come  in  the  autumn  of  the 
year  1694,  an  event  he  had  also  expected  to  await  in 
America. 

This  group  of  Mystics,  tarrying  at  Germantown,  lost 
two  of  their  number,  one  of  them  marrying  the  daughter 
of  Zimmermann,  content  to  build  a  terrestrial  home  amono- 
the  peace-loving  Germantown  settlers.  The  others  re- 
mained faithful  to  the  higher  call,  following  Kelpius 
(1794),  who  selected  a  tract  for  settlement  known  as  the 
Ridge,  then  supposed  to  be  the  highest  point  of  vacant 
land  in  the  neighborhood  of  Germantown,  a  part  of  a 
range  of  hills  drained  by  the  flow  of  the  Wissahickon. 
A  small  natural  cave  was  found  among  the  rocks  of  the 
hillside  and  near  it  gurgled  a  spring.  Kelpius  enlarged 
the  cave  and  made  it  habitable  and  was  wont  to  retire 
within  it  for  prayer  and  contemplation.  The  popular  name 
that  the  mystical  brotherhood  received  was  "  The  Woman 
in  the  Wilderness,"  ^  though  the  members  themselves 
never  acknowledged  this  name.  One  of  the  members, 
Koster,  paid  considerable  attention  to  the  religious  life  of 
the  Germantown  Germans  and  their  English  neighbors, 
and  in  Philadelphia  became  involved  in  the  Keithian  con- 
troversy,^ which  was  then  agitating  the  Quakers  through- 

>  "Das  Weib  in  der  Wuste."  —  Revelation,  xii,  14. 

2  The  Quakers  petitioned  Pastorius  to  banish  the  Mystics  from  the  colony. 


THE   FIRST  PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      49 

out  the  province.  The  sequel  was  a  disagreement  between 
Kelpius  and  Koster,  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  latter 
from  the  Ridge  for  the  purpose  of  founding  a  new 
brotherhood.  A  few  members  of  the  original  community 
and  some  Keithians  joined  him  in  the  attempt  to  form 
a  new  religious  society,  that  they  located  a  short  distance 
north  of  Germantown,  but  the  movement  was  not  crowned 
with  success,  and  the  defection  of  Koster  is  nowhere 
dignified  with  mention  in  the  writings  of  Kelpius,  Seelig, 
or  Falckner. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  hermit  on  the  Wis- 
sahickon  and  his  mystical  brotherhood  were  given  ex- 
clusively to  idle  contemplation.  Kelpius  was  a  teacher  of 
children,  Seelig  a  binder  of  books,  and  all  the  rest  sup- 
ported themselves  by  gardening  or  some  other  form  of 
employment,  most  frequently  by  giving  instruction.  One 
of  their  most  curious  functions  was  the  satisfaction  of 
the  popular  craving  for  supernatural  aid.  It  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  age  and  of  the  peasantry  to  appeal  to 
the  stars  and  other  mysterious  agencies  for  favorable 
influence.  The  horoscope  was  firmly  believed  in,  even  by 
intelligent  persons,  and  the  Mystic  chapter,  from  their 
weird  astronomical  tower  on  the  Wissahickon,  cast  horo- 
scopes not  only  at  nativities  of  human  beings,  but  also  at 
the  laying  of  cornerstones  of  important  edifices.*  Before 
planting  or  sowing,  the  advice  of  the  Mystics  was  deemed 

He  said  he  would  refer  the  matter  to  the  proprietor  (Penn),  who  was  soon 
to  come,  and  admonished  patience.  He  wrote  the  following  lines  :  — 

Die  Fehler  meiner  Briider 
Sind  mir  zwar  ganz  zuwider 
Doch  wegen  eine3  Worts 
Ihr  Zeugniss  zu  vernichten 
Und  freventlich  zu  richten 
Find  ich  nicht  meines  Orts. 
*  Such  as  the  Swedish  Lutheran  church  at  Wicacoa. 


50  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  value,  and  at  other  times  their  divining-rod  was  called 
into  service  to  incline  toward  hidden  springs  or  indicate 
the  presence  of  precious  metals  under  the  surface  of  the 
earth/  A  number  of  astrological  instruments,  with  which 
the  brotherhood  was  provided,  ultimately  passed  into  the 
possession  of  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 
Another  interesting  superstition  was  their  faith  in  talis- 
mans {Anlidngsel).  The  latter  consisted  commonly  of 
small  pieces  of  parchment  or  paper,  or  sometimes  of  thin 
stone  or  metal,  on  which  were  written  some  magic  symbols, 
consecrated  with  occult  ceremonies,  at  moments  when  the 
planets  were  supposed  to  be  of  particular  power.^  The 
talisman  was  supposed  to  be  effectual  in  securing  personal 
safety,  bodily  and  spiritual,  against  accidents  and  evil 
spirits,  or  to  be  possessed  of  magnetic  power,  or  virtue  to 
heal  wounds  and  diseases.  Mystic  healing  powers  were 
attributed  also  to  the  saintlike  Kelpius,  who,  after  the 
brotherhood  became  better  known,  was  visited  by  many 
sectarians  of  Pennsylvania.  Abel  Noble,  the  leader  of  the 
Sabbatarians,  frequently  visited  the  brotherhood  in  their 
tabernacle  in  the  forest,  and  conferences  took  place  also 
with  the  Swedish  pastors,  Rudman  and  Auren.  An  effort 
was  made  by  Kelpius  to  combine  the  numerous  sects  under 
one  church  roof,  in  a  united  Christianity,  but  it  was  with- 
out success.  Conrad  Matthai  was  prominent  in  this  attempt. 
The  Moravian  Zinzendorf ,  nearly  half  a  century  later,  tried 
again  to  realize  that  glorious  dream,  but  was  likewise 
unsuccessful. 

*  Sachse,  in  his  youtb,  was  shown  a  bed  of  iron  ore,  not  far  from  Ger- 
mantown,  which  was  said  to  have  been  located  by  one  of  the  divining-rods. 
See  Sachse,  The  German  Pietists  of  Provincial  Pennsylvania,  part  i. 

2  One  of  the  Anhangsel  most  in  demand  was  prepared  at  midnight  on  St. 
John's  Eve  and  buried  for  a  time  where  the  Sonnenwend  fire  had  been. 
This  special  one  was  supposed  to  protect  against  all  evil  spirits.  Sachse, 
The  German  Pietists,  part  i. 


'^T^,'^-^^" 

.•^■^y^^-^. 


.i^^i^'P^s 


'^^^-'«'L.-^'^^'£'ci>"C    ifi£^<:^    '  ^  «-F,N-^=^  -i^ 


JOHANN   KELPIUS 


THE   FIRST   PERMANENT   SETTLEMENT      51 

Kelpius  lived  until  1708  or  1709,  an  interesting  account 
of  his  dying  day  coming  down  to  us  through  an  attend- 
ant, named  Geissler.  Kelpius  suffered  from  the  widespread 
disease  so  well  called  the  white  plague,  and  his  consump- 
tive frame  wasted  away  slowly.  He  pleaded  with  his  Lord 
for  a  transfiguration,  such  as  was  granted  Enoch  and  Elias, 
but  upon  the  third  day  of  his  prayers  he  said  resignedly 
to  his  faithful  famulus  :  "  My  beloved  Daniel,  I  am  not  to 
attain  that  to  which  I  aspired.  I  have  received  my  answer : 
it  is,  that  dust  I  am,  and  to  dust  I  am  to  return.  It  is  or- 
dained that  I  shall  die  like  all  other  children  of  Adam." 
With  that  the  hermit  handed  Geissler  ^  a  box  which  he 
told  him  to  cast  into  the  river.  Geissler,  thinking  that  the 
box  might  contain  objects  of  value,  hid  it  away,  but  on 
his  return,  Kelpius  told  him  that  he  had  not  obeyed  his 
behest.  Frightened  by  such  clairvoyance,  Geissler  took  the 
box  and  threw  it  into  the  river,  when  it  flashed  and  thun- 
dered (gehlitzet  unci  gedonnert).  Returning  to  Kelpius, 
the  master  thanked  him.  This  is  an  instance  of  the  faith 
which  people  reposed  in  the  occult  powers  of  the  mystic 
brotherhood. 

The  logical  successor  of  the  hermits  on  the  Wissahickon 
was  the  Ephrata  Community  on  the  banks  of  the  Cocalico,^ 
Lancaster  County.  A  branch  of  this  new  society  flourished 
in  Germantown  and  vicinity,  and  a  massive  stone  building 
was  erected  in  1738  on  the  Wissahickon,  a  short  distance 
from  the  spot  where  the  original  tabernacle  stood.  The 
location  is  within  the  confines  of  Fairmount  Park,  where 
an  interesting  history  is  hidden  behind  such  park  signs  as 

1  Geissler,  when  an  old  man,  reported  these  incidents  to  Muhlenberg,  in 
1742.  See  Hallesche  Nachrichten,  pp.  1265-1266.  Reprint  (Philadelphia),  vol. 
ii,  p.  640, 

^  For  an  account  of  the  Ephrata  cloister,  and  its  founder,  Conrad  Beissel, 
see  Chapter  v,  pp.  114-115. 


52  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

"  Hermit  Glen,"  "  Hermit  Bridge,"  "  Hermit  Lane,"  sug- 
gesting, alas,  to  but  few  of  the  thousands  of  daily  visitors, 
the  memory  of  the  ancient  hermit  of  the  Wissahickon. 

With  the  settlement  of  Germantown  in  1683  and  its 
increasing  prosperity,  the  Germans  had  gained,  by  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  permanent  foothold  on 
American  soil.  Located  close  to  Philadelphia,  the  leading 
port  of  entry,  and  founded  just  in  advance  of  the  larger 
migrations  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Germantown  served 
as  a  base  for  the  distribution  of  the  Gernian  people  over 
the  area  most  favorable,  through  cUmatic  and  natural  con- 
ditions, for  the  increase  of  their  race.  They  fully  availed 
themselves  of  this  splendid  opportunity,  as  will  be  told  in 
succeeding  chapters. 


CHAPTER  III 

INCREASE   IN   GERMAN   IMMIGRATION   IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY,  AND    ITS    CAUSES 

Conditions  in  the  Palatinate  and  in  the  southwestern  German  countries  — 
Causes  for  emigration  —  Immigrant  hunting  —  Newlanders  and  their 
methods — The  redemptionist  system;  advantages  and  evils  —  Crowd- 
ing, extortion,  shipwrecks  —  The  Deutsche  Gesellschaf t  of  Philadelphia 
improves  conditions. 

In  the  first  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  rose 
a  great  tide  of  German  immigration.  Its  volume  presents 
a  strange  contrast  to  the  sparseness  of  German  settlements 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  period  that  has  just  been 
passed  in  review.  The  change  was  produced  by  historical 
causes,  operating  as  mighty  forces.  Destructive  wars,  re- 
ligious persecution,  relentless  oppression  by  petty  tyrants, 
rendered  existence  unendurable  at  home,  while  favorable 
reports  from  earlier  settlers  beyond  the  Atlantic,  more 
plentiful  means  of  transportation,  and  an  innate  desire  for 
adventure  (the  German  Wanderlust),  made  irresistible  the 
attraction  of  the  foreign  shore.  The  area  which  furnished 
the  largest  number  of  immigrants  was  the  southwestern 
part  of  Germany,  the  Palatinate,  Wiirtemberg,  Baden,  and 
Switzerland,  perhaps  in  that  very  order.  Sometimes  all  of 
the  causes  just  mentioned  united  to  compel  an  exodus  from 
a  particular  district,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Palatinate,  while 
in  Switzerland,  with  a  nominally  freer  government,  relig- 
ious persecution  was  the  main  cause  of  emigration.  The 
emigrations  from  the  Palatinate  ^  for  a  time  surpassed  in 

*  The  geographical  borders  of  the  Palatinate  at  that  time  exceeded  the 
present  limits  of  the  Rhenish  Palatinate,  which  is  to-day  a  part  of  Bavaria. 


54  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

extent  those  from  all  other  parts  of  Germany,  so  much  so 
that  in  England  and  America  emigrants  from  Germany 
were  commonly  called  Palatines,  and  curiously  enough 
we  meet  in  an  historical  document  the  phrase,  "  a  Palatine 
from  Holsteyn." 

In  order  to  understand  more  clearly  the  situation  as  it 
existed  in  the  Rhine  country  and  in  the  southwestern  part 
of  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  get  a  closer  view  ^  of  each  of  the 
main  causes  of  discontent,  viz.,  the  wars,  the  religious 
persecutions,  and  the  tyranny  of  small  rulers. 

The  most  destructive  of  all  the  wars  that  devastated 
Germany  was  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  1618-48,  than  which 
none  more  terrible  is  known  to  history.  It  is  an  accepted 
fact  that  in  its  material  development  Germany  was  set 
back  two  hundred  years.  Throughout  Germany  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants  were  killed,  and  the  property 
loss  was  far  greater.  Statistics  are  furnished  by  Freytag 
for  the  county  of  Henneberg,^  showing  that  in  the  course 
of  the  war  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants,  sixty- 
It  extended  from  the  Neckar  Valley,  downstream  on  both  sides  of  the  Rhine 
as  far  as  Oppenheim,  Alzei,  and  Bacharach,  and  from  the  Bergstrasse  (the 
old  Roman  road  running  along  the  Odenwald  from  Darmstadt  to  Heidel- 
berg) on  the  east,  to  the  Hardt  Mountains  on  the  west.  Mannheim,  Heidel- 
berg, Worms,  Alzei  were  within  its  borders.  Its  area  was  about  340  German 
square  miles,  a  little  less  than  the  area  of  the  present  state  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  number  of  inhabitants  about  500,000. 

1  Cf.  the  following  :  Diindliker,  Geschichte  der  Schveiz;  Freytag,  "  Aus 
dem  Jahrhundert  des  groszen  Krieges,"  vol.  iii  of  Bilder  aus  der  deutschen 
Vergangenheit ;  Hausser,  Geschichte  der  Rheinischen  Pfalz. 

For  brief  accounts  see  :  Kapp,  F.,  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  im  Staate  New 
York  (N.  Y.  1867),  pp.  58-145.  Reprinted  in  Geschichtsblatter  (edited  by  Carl 
Sehurz),  vol.  i.  New  York,  1884  ;  Kuhns,  German  and  Swiss  Settlements  of 
Pennsylvania,  chap.  i. 

2  Within  the  present  borders  partly  of  Saxe-Weimar,  Prussia,  and  the 
Saxon  Principalities,  i.  e.,  in  Central  Germany.  For  statistics,  see  Freytag, 
pp.  234  ff. 


INCEEASE   IN   IMMIGRATION  55 

six  per  cent  of  the  houses,  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the 
horses,  and  over  eighty-two  per  cent  of  the  cattle  were 
destroyed.  He  also  proves  that  the  number  of  houses  and 
inhabitants  in  this  locality  did  not  again  reach  the  ante- 
bellum number,  until  1849,  i.  e.,  two  hundred  years  later. 

The  southwestern  part  of  Germany  fared  no  better, 
the  Palatinate  worst  of  all,  being  repeatedly  visited  by  the 
contending  armies.  The  ruler  of  the  Palatinate  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  was  the  unfortunate  Frederick  V, 
the  Winter  King,  who,  after  accepting  the  leadership  of  the 
Protestant  cause,  was  badly  defeated  in  Bohemia.  The 
war  was  carried  into  his  own  country,  when  General  Tilly, 
in  1622,  laid  waste  that  fair  and  prosperous  land.  Ten 
years  later  Gustavus  Adolphus  expelled  the  Imperialists 
from  the  Palatinate,  but  after  the  battle  of  Nordlingen, 
the  troops  of  Sweden  and  Bernhard  of  Saxe-Weimar,  far 
from  acting  as  friends  and  allies,  gave  to  the  country,  as 
a  contemporary  expressed  it,  "  the  Last  Ointment."  In 
1635  came  the  Spaniards  under  Gallas,  who  exceeded  even 
the  Imperialists  and  Swedes  in  brutality  and  spoliation, 
leaving  behind  them  only  "  glowing  iron  and  millstones." 
As  elsewdiere,  terrible  tortures  *  were  inflicted  to  obtain  in- 
formation concerning  hidden  treasures,  and  death  was  but 
a  mercy,  saving  from  torments  and  dreaded  exile. 

The  Palatinate  was  again  ravaged  by  the  French  and 
Bavarians  in  1639,  and  the  first  good  crop  thereafter,  that 
of  1641,  was  also  destroyed.  In  1644  and  1645  the  old 

^  For  a  graphic  description  of  the  methods  employed  by  the  troopers  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  of.  the  German  contemporary  novel  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  Grimmelshausen's  Simplicissimus.  One  of  the  most  diabolical 
of  the  tortures  employed  was  that  of  putting  salt  on  the  soles  of  a  peasant 
landlord  and  getting  a  goat  to  lick  off  the  salt.  The  agonized  laughter  of  the 
victim  furnished  amusement  for  the  brutal  bystanders,  who  liberated  him 
only  upon  his  disclosing  the  hiding-places  of  the  last  precious  pieces  of  his 
property. 


56  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

foes  overran  and  robbed,  with  their  traditional  savagery. 
In  the  last  years  of  the  war  neither  friend  nor  foe  any 
longer  entered  the  Palatinate,  the  melancholy  fact  staring 
them  in  the  face  that  there  was  no  longer  anything  to 
steal,  —  the  most  fertile  area  of  Germany  having  become 
a  desert. 

The  moral  degradation  following  in  the  wake  of  such 
devastation  was  even  worse  than  the  loss  of  life  and 
property.  Friend  could  not  be  distinguished  from  foe,  and 
men  would  wrest  from  their  starvinor  neisfhbors  a  crust  of 
bread.  It  has  been  recorded  that  not  even  human  flesh 
was  sacred,  that  the  gallows  and  churchyards  were  put 
under  guard  to  protect  them  against  theft  by  desperate, 
famine-stricken  people.  Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  in  some 
instances  even  murder  and  cannibalism  were  resorted  to. 
The  neighborhood  of  the  city  of  Worms,  once  a  centre 
of  European  civilization,  a  free  imperial  city,  at  times  the 
residence  of  emperors,  now  afforded  cover  for  a  group 
of  beggars,  who  fell  upon  passers-by  and  devoured  their 
bodies  for  sustenance.  The  destruction  of  fields  and 
property  had  another  disastrous  effect,  disposing  the  sur- 
viving tillers  of  the  soil  to  become  camp-followers,  as  the 
easiest  way  of  procuring  a  living.  Self-reliant  toil  was 
thus  given  another  inducement  to  idleness  and  consequent 
demoralization. 

A  ray  of  hope  lightened  the  Palatinate,  when,  immedi- 
ately after  the  war,  the  Elector  Karl  Ludwig  ascended  the 
throne.  He  was  the  son  of  the  ill-starred  Winter  King,  a 
sensible,  duty-loving,  and  economical  ruler,  whose  charac- 
ter had  been  formed  in  the  school  of  adversity.  While  in 
exile  in  London,  he  had  witnessed  the  death  of  Charles  I, 
his  uncle,  on  the  scaffold.  Returning  to  the  Palatinate,  in- 
stead of  a  land  of  plenty,  he  found  a  barren  waste.  A  dis- 


INCREASE  IN  IMMIGRATION  57 

aster  of  such  magnitude  could  not  be  repaired  witliin  a 
short  time,  but  Karl  Ludwig  contributed  more  than  one 
man's  share  to  the  social  and  material  betterment  of  his 
native  land.  Still,  even  within  his  lifetime,  there  began  a 
new  series  of  misfortunes.  In  1674  Louis  XIV  sent  Tu- 
renne  into  the  Palatinate,  to  burn  and  plunder.  In  some 
districts  the  inhabitants  dared  not  cultivate  their  fields  for 
the  succeeding  three  years.  The  knightly  challenge  of  the 
helpless  elector  for  a  duel  with  Louis  XIV  was  not  ac- 
cepted. The  piliaging  continued,  and  the  elector  was  even 
forced  to  pay  tribute.  In  1680  the  French  despot  invaded 
the  Palatinate  in  time  of  peace.  It  was  the  year  of  Karl 
Ludwig's  death,  and  his  successors  could  and  would  do  no- 
thing to  lessen  the  sufferings  of  the  people.  The  most 
cruel  invasion  of  all  was  that  which  Louis  XIV  made  in 
1688,  again  without  declaration  of  war,  and  on  an  absurd 
claim  to  the  territory  by  inheritance  through  Elizabeth,  the 
late  elector's  daughter,  who  had  married  the  Duke  of  Or- 
leans, brother  of  the  French  king.  The  beautiful  castle  of 
Heidelberg  and  the  city  of  Mannheim  were  burned  in  the 
severe  winter  of  1688-89.  The  Palatinate  was  to  be  made 
and  kept  a  desert  in  order  not  to  serve  as  a  granary  for  the 
enemies  of  France.  The  beautiful  cities  of  Speyer  and 
Worms  presently  shared  the  fate  of  Heidelberg  and  Mann- 
heim. These  cities,  through  centuries  famed  for  their  pro- 
sperity, now  harbored  a  pauper  population.  Even  less  con- 
sideration was  shown  the  people  in  smaller  towns  and  in 
the  innumerable  villages.  The  greed  and  cruelty  of  the 
French  troops  surpassed  even  the  record  of  the  "  Lands- 
knechte"  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  When  nearly  five 
hundred  thousand  Palatines  were  driven  from  devastated 
fields  and  burning  houses,  no  humanitarian  hand  was 
raised  to  render  assistance.  Exile  was  followed  by  famine, 


58  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

famine  by  pestilence,  and  all  the  finer  impulses  of  the 
human  heart  were  extinguished  in  the  gross  wretchedness 
of  brutalizing  despair. 

A  remarkable  fact  in  the  history  of  the  Palatinate  is, 
that  during  the  brief  intervals  of  peace,  between  success- 
ive invasions  in  the  seventeenth  century  (and  they  by  no 
means  discontinued  at  its  close),  the  country  showed  most 
wonderful  recuperative  power.  Whenever  a  period  of  ten 
years  of  peace  was  vouchsafed,  the  country  prospered  to 
such  an  enormous  degree,  that  it  again  became  an  allur- 
ing bait  for  warlike  neighbors.  The  fertility  of  the  soil, 
the  industry  and  agricultural  skill  of  the  population,  "a 
nation  of  farmers  through  thirty  generations,"  invariably 
transformed  again  the  desert  into  a  garden.  The  invading 
armies  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War  and  those  of  Louis  XIV 
frequently  took  advantage  of  this  ability  to  recover,  allow- 
ing the  country  just  time  enough  to  grow  new  crops  again, 
before  reinvasion.  On  one  occasion  a  French  army,  after 
having  robbed  a  district  of  everything  it  possessed,  re- 
turned seeds  to  the  farmers,  so  that  they  might  prepare 
another  harvest  for  the  soldiers.  The  farmers  by  and  by 
refused  to  turn  the  sod  and  raise  crops  for  others  to 
reap. 

Under  the  electors  of  the  Palatinate,  succeeding  Karl 
Ludwig,  another  cause  for  popular  dissatisfaction  was 
added.  Karl  Ludwig,  though  himself  a  Catholic,  had 
been  tolerant  in  matters  of  reliofion.  His  successors  were 
fanatics,  or  ruled  entirely  under  the  influence  of  Jesuit 
advisers.  The  persecution  of  Protestants,  the  Lutheran 
and  Reformed,  was  carried  on  systematically,  their  church 
property  being  confiscated  to  a  very  large  extent,  and  the 
worshipers  in  many  cases  expelled  from  the  country.  This 
was  done  even  in  contravention  of  treaties  or  agreements, 


INCREASE   IN  IMMIGRATION  59 

and  caused  reprisals  in  the  Protestant  countries,  taken 
aofainst  the  Catholic  inhabitants.  A  cessation  of  terrorism 
was  thus  frequently  brought  about,  at  least  officially.  The 
law  of  the  stronger,  however,  continued  in  force,  and  de- 
nominations other  than  Lutheran  or  Reformed,  such  as 
Huguenots,  Waldenses,  Mennonites,  Quakers,  et  al.,  had 
no  rights  which  the  government  was  bound  to  respect. 

The  third  cause  for  emigration  which  already  existed  in 
the  seventeenth,  but  became  far  more  compelling  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  the  tyranny  of  the  princes  of 
small  domains.  Germany  was  broken  up  into  hundreds 
of  practically  independent  principalities,  whose  rulers 
generally  imitated  the  example  of  Louis  XIV.  They  im- 
poverished the  people  through  heavy  taxation,  levied  to 
support  an  extravagant  court,  that  hunted,  feasted,  and 
reveled,  until  bankruptcy  or  revolution  put  an  end  to  their 
riotous  living.  The  peasant  classes  were  the  principal  suf- 
ferers, and  long-suffering  they  were  indeed,  throughout 
western  Europe,  until  their  day  dawned,  near  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  with  the  French  Revolution.  In 
the  mean  time  the  "  Landesvater  "  (or,  as  they  have  been 
dubbed,  "  Landesverrater  ")  thumbscrewed  their  faithful 
subjects,  until  they  were  reduced  to  serfdom  or  beggary. 
Conditions  were  no  better  in  Wiirtemberg,  Baden,  or  any 
part  of  the  southwestern  German  territory.  Not  only  did 
the  princes  tyrannously  disregard  the  economic  welfare  of 
their  subjects,  but  several  of  them  added  religious  per- 
secution to  the  other  inflictions.  All  the  more  did  the 
persecuted  hold  fast  to  their  religion,  whatever  sect  they 
belonged  to,  being  all  that  was  left  them,  a  treasure  that 
could  not  be  attacked  by  dust  or  rust,  or  the  lust  of 
princes.  The  history  of  the  period  is  replete  with  instances 
of  heroism  displayed  in  the  cause  of  religion,  the  various 


60  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

sectarians  proving  equal  devotion  to  their  particular  faith. 
A  fond  hope  for  betterment  of  their  earthly  condition 
rose  in  their  hearts  with  the  good  reports  from  the  Ameri- 
can colonists  under  English^  rule,  a  hope  made  more  vivid 
by  the  eloquence  of  serious  men  such  as  William  Penn,  — 
a  hope  that  suddenly  seemed  capable  of  realization,  when 
what  appeared  to  the  Palatines  as  a  direct  invitation  from 
Queen  Anne  of  England  came  for  them  to  settle  in  her 
transatlantic  colonies.  The  wretchedness  of  their  present 
condition,  the  impossibility  of  future  improvement  seeming 
never  so  evident  as  now,  turned  sentiment  into  resolution, 
and  what  might  be  likened  to  a  tidal  wave  of  immigration 
formed  quickly  and  swept  from  the  Rhine  to  the  shores  of 
England,  thence  to  turn  impulsively  and  with  compelling 
force  toward  the  promised  land.  The  story  of  this  first 
great  exodus,  the  Palatine  immigration  to  the  colony  of 
New  York,  will  be  the  subject  of  the  succeeding  chapter. 
The  principal  causes  of  the  great  German  immigration - 
in  the  eighteenth  century  were  found  to  have  been  relig- 
Jous  persecutions,  the  tyranny  of  autocrats,  destructive 
wars,  failure  of  crops  and  famine,  economic  bankruptcy. 
The  flames  of  immigration  once  having  a  good  start,  a 
gale  soon  arose,  which  fanned  them  into  a  conflagration 
beyond  control.  There  were  then  as  there  are  now,  in  our 
own  day,  various  artificial  aids  operating  toward  the  in- 
crease or  steady  continuance  of  immigration.  Such  were, 
firstly,  more  frequent  opportunities  of  transportation,  pre- 
pared by  profit-seeking  ship-owners  or  ship-companies, 
and  secondly,  more  abundant  information  or  communica- 
tion supplied  gratuitously  by  the  selfish  interests  of  ad- 

1  On  the  Continent  Prussia,  since  the  time  of  the  Great  Elector,  had  stood 
for  religious  tolerance,  and  had  invited  the  persecuted  sectarians  to  settle 
in  her  territory. 


THE  PALATINATE.  AND  THE   CENTRE   OF  THE  GERMAN   EMIGRATION 
DISTRICT   IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


INCREASE  IN  IMMIGRATION  61 

vertising  agents  and  land  speculators.  The  perils  of  the 
immigrant  by  land  and  sea  furnish  a  theme  that  cannot 
be  exhausted  within  the  limits  of  the  present  chapter,  but 
a  brief  survey  may  fittingly  precede  the  historical  outline 
of  the  German  settlements  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
may  serve  to  increase  our  admiration  of  the  courage  and 
heroism  of  the  early  immigrants,  and  remind  us  also  that 
neither  cleverness  nor  gullibility  was  born  within  our  own 
generation. 

The  immigrant  agents  were  either  employed  by  ship 
companies  in  Holland  or  England,  or  in  many  cases  acted 
on  their  own  initiative.  They  were  commonly  called  "  new- 
landers"  {Neul'dnder),  and  frequently  had  been  failures  as 
colonists  in  America,  or  at  all  events  found  immigrant- 
hunting  a  more  profitable  occupation.  "  They  receive," 
says  Mittelberger,*  "  from  their  merchants  in  Rotterdam 
or  Amsterdam  for  every  person  of  ten  years  and  over, 
three  florins  or  a  ducat ;  whereas  the  merchants  in  Phil- 
adelphia, sixty,  seventy,  or  eighty  florins  for  such  a  person, 
in  proportion  as  said  person  has  incurred  more  or  less 
debts  during  the  voyage."  The  newlanders  not  only  ob- 
tained a  commission  from  the  so-called  merchants  or  ship- 
owners, but  had  many  opportunities  of  extracting  money 
from  the  immigrants,  whom  they  pretended  to  serve  as 
friends  or  patrons.  In  their  dress  they  affected  the  ap- 
pearance of  wealth  begotten  in  America,  wearing  pocket 
"watches  with  heavy  gold  chains  as  a  sample  of  the  gold  to 

*  Gottlieb  Mittelberger's  Journey  to  Pennsylvania  in  the  year  1750  and  re- 
turn to  Germany  in  1754,  showing  not  only  a  description  of  the  country  ac- 
cording to  its  present  condition,  but  also  a  detailed  account  of  the  sad  and 
unfortunate  circumstances  of  most  of  the  Germans  that  have  immigrated  or 
are  immigrating  to  that  country.  Translated  from  the  German  by  C.  T. 
Eben,  Philadelphia,  1898.  See  p.  38.  The  German  original  was  published  in 
Stuttgart,  1756. 


62  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

be  found  lying  in  the  streets  of  the  new  country.  Stories 
of  rapid  advancement  in  wealth  or  station  constantly  issued 
from  their  mouths,  —  "  The  maid  had  become  a  lady,  the 
peasant  a  nobleman,  the  artisan  a  baron,  the  officers  of  the 
government  held  their  places  by  the  will  of  the  people." 
The  newlanders  carried  about  with  them  letters  from  ac- 
quaintances, perhaps  from  some  one  of  the  same  village, 
now  settled  in  America,  prosperous  and  anxious  that  his 
friends  should  share  his  happiness.  Such  letters  were  often 
forged  by  the  skillful  hand  of  the  newlander  who  could 
"  imitate  all  characters,  marks  and  tokens  so  admirably 
that  even  he  whose  handwriting  they  had  imitated,  must 
acknowledge  it  to  be  their  own.  By  means  of  such  prac- 
tices they  deceived  even  people  who  are  not  credulous."  ^ 
Quantities  of  descriptive  pamphlets  and  advertisements 
were  circulated,  reveahng  brilliant  prospects  for  settlers 
in  Pennsylvania,  Carolina,  and  elsewhere,"  some  of  them 
of  so  seductive  a  nature  that  governments  found  it  neces- 
sary on  their  part  to  circulate  literature  with  a  view  to 
counteractino;  the  dang-erous  influence.  An  instance  of  a 
prohibition  against  newlanders  was  that  reported  by 
Christoph  Sauer  in  his  newspaper  in  1751 :  "  The  Elector 
Palatine  has  issued  a  command  that  no  newlanders  are 
to  be  tolerated  in  the  whole  of  the  Palatinate ;  that  if 
captured  they  should  be  thrown  into  prison."^  In  spite  of 
such  mandates  the  newlanders  succeeded  in  accomplishing 
their  purposes  by  the  most  effective  of  their  methods, 

*  Mittelberger,  p.  42. 

2  For  attempts  to  get  German  settlers  to  New  England,  see  Chapter  ix, 
pp.  254  £E. 

3  Cf.  also  Kapp,  Die  Deutschen  im  Staate  Neia  York  (1867).  Dokumen- 
tarischer  Anliang,  pp.  385-397.  (5)  "  Kaiser  Joseph's  Auswanderungs-Ver- 
bot "  ;  (6)  "  Formular  eines  holliindischen  Seelen  Verkaufers  Lockzettels  "  ; 
(7)  "  Dienstvertrag  eines  Auswanderers." 


INCREASE  IN  IMMIGRATION  63 

house  to  house  visitation,  performed  in  secret,  under  the 
disguise  of  fellow  countrymen  returning  from  America/ 
Watchful  for  an  opportunity  to  make  a  favorable  impres- 
sion, they  would  expatiate,  in  the  appropriate  local  dialect, 
upon  the  glorious  opportunities  waiting  in  America,  in 
comparison  with  the  restrictions  and  abuses  at  home,  and 
then,  if  possible,  speedily  arrange  a  plan  of  exit  by  way 
of  the  Rhine  and  the  Netherlands. 

A  good  example  of  the  literature  used  to  excite  in  the 
common  people  the  desire  for  immigration  is  the  little 
book  written  in  the  interests  of  South  Carolina,  and  ex- 
tensively circulated  throughout  Switzerland  and  the  Pala- 
tinate, entitled :  "  Der  Nunmehro  in  der  neuen  Welt 
vergniigt  und  ohne  Heim-Wehe  lebende  Schweitzer. 
Oder :  Kurtze  und  eigentliche  Beschreibung  Des  gegen- 
wartigen  Zustandes  der  koniglichen  Englischen  Provinz 
Carolina,  aus  den  neulich  angekommenen  Briefen  der 
Alldorten  sich  befindenden  Schweitzeren  zusammen  ge- 
tragen,  von  J.  K.  L.  Bern.  Getruckt  bey  Johannes  Bon- 
deli,"  1734:.  The  booklet  pretends  to  give  the  impressions 
recorded  in  letters  of  Swiss  settlers  located  in  South  Caro- 
lina, notably  those  in  Purysburg.  The  pleasures  of  house 
and  home  on  large  acreage  are  emphasized.  The  land 
literally  flows  with  milk  and  honey  —  the  cows  roaming 
about  on  perfect  pasturage  all  the  year  round,  and  honey 
being  found  abundantly  in  hollow  trees.  Wild  turkeys 
are  found  in  flocks  of  five  hundred,  geese,  —  that  some 
of  the  farmers  possess  in  flocks  to  the  number  of  two 
hundred,  —  furnish  choice  feather  beds.  As  for  game,  the 

'  Cf.  H.  A.  Rattermann  In  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vols,  xiv,  xv,  and  xvi,  in 
connection  with  his  articles,  "  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Elements  ira  Staate 
Maine,"  where  he  furnishes  a  very  full  account  of  the  work  and  wiles  of 
several  immigrant  agents,  with  reprints  of  advertisements,  etc. 


64  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

bisons  put  their  heads  through  the  windows  of  the  log 
cabins  waiting  to  be  shot ;  the  wolves  are  by  no  means  as 
large  as  the  European,  and  can  be  tamed.  The  taste  of 
venison  in  Carolina  far  surpasses  anything  in  Europe,  the 
bears  are  smaller  and  frequently  seen  herding  with  the 
swine.  The  alligator  [Allegatter)  has  no  terrors,  it  is  di- 
minutive in  comparison  with  the  crocodile  of  the  Old 
World,  and  the  Indians  and  negroes  use  its  tail  for  food. 
The  danger  of  overpopulation,  which  is  the  main  cause  for 
emigration  in  Switzerland,  can  never  exist  in  Carolina, 
with  its  length  of  three  hundred  and  seventy  hours  *  and 
breadth  of  more  than  one  thousand  hours.  An  appendix 
follows,  consisting  of  letters  from  Swiss  colonists  located 
inland,  furnishing  positive  proof  that  the  Switzer  in  Caro- 
lina is  happy  and  lives  without  the  dreaded  homesickness, 
that  preys  upon  the  Swiss  when  in  a  foreign  country. 

The  book  seems  to  have  been  so  seductive  in  its  effect, 
that  it  called  forth  a  reply,  written  perhaps  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Town  Council  of  Bern,  who,  on  March  17, 
1735,  gave  directions  for  the  distribution  of  the  following 
counterblast,  entitled :  "  Neue  Nachricht  alter  und  neuer 
Merkwiirdigkeiten,  enthaltend  ein  vertrautes  Gesprach  und 
sichere  Briefe  von  der  Landschaft  Carolina  und  iibrigen 
Englischen  Pflanzstiidten  in  Amerika,  zufinden  zu  Zurich, 
Bern,  Basel,  Schaffhausen,  und  St.  Gallen  in  den  Bericht- 
hiiusern  gegen  Ende  des  Jahres  Siebzehn  hundert  vier  und 
dreissig."  The  latter  also  was  calculated  to  reach  the  very 
heart  of  the  immio-rant.  In  the  form  of  a  dialoofue  between 
a  likely  young  fellow  of  twenty-five  and  the  schoolmaster, 
the  whole  subject  of  immigration  to  Carolina  is  discussed, 

*  An  hour  is  about  three  English  miles.  The  distances  as  stated  are  of 
course  overestimated  ;  it  was  not  known  how  far  the  land  extended  west- 
ward. 


INCREASE   IN  IMMIGRATION  65 

in  the  hypercritical  manner  of  a  Mittelberger.  Pictured  in 
lurid  coloring  appear  the  dangers  of  the  passage,  the  mor- 
tality on  shipboard,  the  slavery  awaiting  colonists  on  the 
other  side,  hopelessly  duped  by  dishonest  ship  captains 
and  newlanders.  Any  number  of  irksome  tribulations  are 
emphasized,  such  as  breaking  your  plow  far  out  in  the 
Carolina  wilderness,  when  there  is  no  smith  within  a  hun- 
dred miles  to  repair  it,  or  the  impossibility  of  obtaining 
seed  in  sowing  time  or  a  spade  when  you  want  to  dig,  and 
the  "plentiful"  game  running  over  the  crops  and  ruining 
them,  when  the  outraged  farmer  cannot  buy  a  gun  to 
shoot  down  the  intruding  beasts.  If  the  harvest  be  rich  a 
sickle  is  surely  lacking,  and  the  farmer  has  to  pull  the 
grain  out  with  his  hands.  Such  aggravating  little  troubles, 
so  skillfully  designed  to  terrify  the  Swiss  peasant,  are  re- 
presented as  depriving  the  settler  of  every  comfort  in  life. 
Lastly  the  argument  is  made,  "  If  Carolina  be  fair,  Switz- 
erland is  fairer,  who  might  gainsay  that?"  In  conclusion 
follows  an  appeal  to  the  patriotism  of  the  Swiss,  who  is 
called  on  to  decide  —  though  he  has  never  been  in  Amer- 
ica—  which  of  the  two  countries  is  the  more  beautiful. 
His  national  pride  being  thus  appealed  to,  the  answer  can- 
not be  in  doubt  for  a  moment.*  This  reply,  so  shrewdly 
conceived  and  bearing  governmental  sanction,  undoubt- 
edly had  for  a  time  a  strong  counteracting  influence  upon 
literary  propagandism.  However,  immigration  went  on, 
regardless  of  literature  pro  and  con,  as  if  impelled  by  ele- 
mental forces,  uncontrolled  by  sentiment,  but  governed 
by  natural  laws. 

*  The  two  above-named  pamphlets  are  described  in  detail,  with  extracts, 
by  Ludwig  Hirzel,  in  a  series  of  articles,  entitled  "  Nach  Amerika  aus  dem 
Anfang  des  achtzelniten  Jahrhunderts."  Sonntagahlatt  des  Bunds,  Bern,  No- 
vember 8,  15,  22,  29,  and  December  6,  13,  20,  1896. 


66  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

A  system  was  establislied  very  early  in  American  colo- 
nial history,  by  which  an  immigrant  could  get  to  the 
promised  land,  though  not  in  possession  of  the  means  to 
pay  for  his  passage.  He  would  agree  to  serve  from  three 
to  seven  years  in  the  colonies  until  the  price  of  his  transpor- 
tation was  paid  off  to  the  shipmaster  who  had  advanced  it. 
At  the  end  of  his  term  he  was  released,  given  a  suit  of 
clothes,  sometimes  money  or  land,  and  awarded  all  the 
rights  of  a  free  citizen.  Hence  the  term  redemption ers 
(because  redeemed)  was  applied  to  this  class  of  immigrants, 
who  were  also  known  as  "  indented  servants."  At  first  the 
system  seemed  humane  and  liberal,  yielding  the  poor  ulti- 
mately the  same  opportunities  as  the  well-to-do.  It  had 
been  advocated  by  Furley,  the  agent  of  William  Penn, 
and  had  been  in  vogue  in  Virginia  since  the  first  decade 
of  that  colony's  existence.^  The  system  began  to  be 
applied  extensively  to  German  immigration  about  1728. 
Muhlenberg  describes  the  arrival  of  a  ship  in  Philadelphia 
in  the  following  manner  :^  — 

"  Before  the  ship  is  allowed  to  cast  anchor  In  the  harbor,  the 
immigrants  are  all  examined,  as  to  whether  any  contagious 
disease  be  among  them.  The  next  step  is  to  bring  all  the  new 
arrivals  in  a  procession  before  the  city  hall  and  there  compel 
them  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  of  Great  Britain. 
After  that  they  are  brought  back  to  the  ship.  Those  that  have 
paid  their  passage  are  released,  the  others  are  advertised  in  the 
newspapers  for  sale.  The  ship  becomes  the  market.  The  buyers 
make  their  choice  and  bargain  with  the  immigrants  for  a  certain 
number  of  years  and  days,  depending  upon  the  price  demanded 

*  The  redemptionist  system  was  also  iu  existence  among  the  French  of 
the  West  Indies,  and  among  the  French  and  Spanish  in  Louisiana;  "  Les 
engages"  was  the  name  for  indented  servants.  Cf.  Hanno  Deiler,  Zur 
Geschichte  der  Deutschen  am  unteren  Mississippi.  Das  Redemptionsystem  im 
Staate  Louisiana.  New  Orleans,  1902. 

2  Hallesche  Nachrichten,  vol.  ii,  998,  note.  Reprint,  vol.  ii,  pp.  460-461. 


INCREASE   IN  IMMIGRATION  67 

by  the  ship  captain  or  other  '  merchant '  who  made  the  outlay 
for  transportation,  etc.  Colonial  governments  recognize  the  writ- 
ten contract,  which  is  then  made  binding  for  the  redemptioner. 
The  young  unmarried  people  of  both  sexes  are  very  quickly 
sold,  and  their  fortunes  are  either  good  or  bad,  according  to  the 
character  of  the  buyer.  Old  married  people,  widows,  and  the 
feeble,  are  a  drug  on  the  market,  but  if  they  have  sound  children, 
then  their  transportation  charges  are  added  to  those  of  the  chil- 
dren, and  the  latter  must  serve  the  longer.  This  does  not  save 
families  from  being  separated  in  the  various  towns  or  even 
provinces.  Again,  the  healthiest  are  taken  first,  and  the  sick  are 
frequently  detained  beyond  the  period  of  recovery,  when  a  re- 
lease would  frequently  have  saved  them  !  " 

Not  only  tillers  of  the  soil  and  artisans  became  serfs 
for  their  passage  money,  students  and  schoolmasters  also 
were  often  sold  in  this  labor  market.  The  Reverend  Mr. 
Kunze  naively  writes,  that  he  had  entertained  the  thought, 
if  ever  he  became  the  owner  of  twenty  pounds,  of  buying 
the  first  German  student  who  would  land  at  Philadelphia, 
put  him  into  his  garret,  and  there  with  his  help  begin  a 
Latin  school,^  which  he  was  sure  would  quickly  pay  off 
the  outlay.  People  of  rank,  who  had  lost  their  money, 
fared  no  better  than  the  low-born  peasant.  There  was 
Frederick  Helfenstein,'  probably  a  lineal  descendant  of 
Count  Helfenstein  and  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  who  was 
compelled  to  sell  himself  as  a  redemptioner  in  Georgia. 
Mittelberger  tells  us  of  a  noble  lady,  who,  with  her  two 

1  Hallesche  Nachrichten,  p.  1377.  Reprint,  vol.  ii,  pp.  709-710.  The  follow- 
ing advertisement  appeared  in  Pennsylvanischer  Staaishote,  January  18,  1774: 
"  Deutsche  Leute. —  Es  sind  noch  50-60  deutsche  Leute  welche  neulich  von 
Deutschland  hier  angekommen  sind,  vorhanden,  so  bei  der  Wittwe  Krei- 
derin  im  goldenen  Schwan  logiren.  Darunter  sind  zwei  Schulmeister,  Hand- 
werksleute,  Bauren,  auch  artige  Kinder,  sowohl  Knaben  als  Madchen.  Sie 
miiehten  fiir  ihre  Fracht  dienen." 

2  Strobe],  History  of  the  Salzburgers,  p.  117. 


68  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

half-grown  daughters  and  a  young  son,  in  1753,  was 
compelled  to  serve,  havmg  lost  her  thousand  rix-talers 
given  for  safe-keeping  to  a  newlander,  who  proved  to  be 
an  embezzler.  John  Wesley  speaks  of  John  Reinier  of 
Switzerland,  who  "  while  provided  with  money,  books  and 
drugs  "  was  robbed  by  the  captain  and  forced  to  sell  him- 
self for  seven  years.  Advertisements  were  found  in  the 
newspapers  that  did  not  tactfully  distinguish  between 
redemptioner  and  slave.  For  example  :  — 

"  To  be  sold  —  A  likely  Servant  Woman  having  three  years 
and  a  half  to  serve.  She  is  a  good  spinner."  ("  Pennsylvania 
Gazette,"  June,  1742.)  "To  be  sold  —  A  Dutch  apprentice 
lad,  who  has  five  years  and  three  months  to  serve  ;  lie  has  been 
brought  up  to  the  tailor's  business.  Can  work  well."  ("  Penn- 
sylvanischer  Staatsbote,"  14  December,  1773.)  ^ 

The  profits  in  the  transportation  of  redemptioners  were 
greater  than  in  that  of  passengers  who  paid  their  way. 
The  latter  were  therefore  made  the  victims  of  extortions, 
from  the  very  beginning  of  their  journey,  namely,  the 
passage  down  the  Rhine.  The  number  of  toll  stations  ^  was 
legion,  and  on  passing  from  one  principality  to  another 
all  the  baggage  had  to  be  reexamined,  a  duty  never  done 
with  a  view  to  expedition,  but  regulated  by  the  conven- 
ience of  the  customs  officials.  Fees  were  demanded  with 
such  frequency  by  agents  of  all  kinds,  that  the  unhapiiy 

^  Cf.  Eickhoff,  In  der  neuen  Heimat,  p.  145. 

^  As  late  as  1804,  Dr.  Fried.  Hermann  (of  Llibeck),  who  investigated  the 
transportation  facilities  of  German  immigrants,  reported  on  the  trip  from 
Heilbronn  (on  the  Neckar)  to  Rotterdam  as  follows  :  "  Diese  Reise  danert 
bios  von  Heilbronn  aus  4  bis  6  Wochen,  well  die  Rheinschiffe  bis  an  die 
hoUandische  Granze  nicht  weniger  als  36  Zollstatten  zu  passieren  haben, 
und  bei  jeder  derselben  visitiert  werden,  ein  Geschaft  wobei  die  ZoUbeam- 
ten  mebr  anf  ihre  Bequemlichkeit  als  auf  die  schnelle  Abfertigung  der 
SchifEe  Riicksicbt  nehmen."  Hermann,  Die  Deiitschen  in  Nordamerika,  1806, 
p.  14.  Earlier  conditions  were  much  worse.  Cf.  Mittelberger,  supra,  p.  18. 


Redemptioners. 

THERE  ftiU  remain  on  board  the  fljip  AuYwa. 
from  Amilcrdam,  about  l8  pafTcngcrs,  smomft 
whom  are,  * 

Servant  girU,  gardeners,  butchers,  tnafons, 
fugar  bakera,  bread  bakers,  l  fhoeroaker,  i  fiJwer 
fmjth,  I  leather  dreffcr,  i  tobacconift,  i  pafhy 
cook,  and  fome  a.  little  acquainted  with  waiting 
on  families,  as  well  as  farming:  ^i  tendJag  hocres^ 
&c  They  are  all  in  good  health.  Any  perfoo 
defirous  of  being  accommodated  b  the  above 
branch  es  will  pleafe  /pecdily  toapp^y  to 

Captain  JOHN  BOWLES, 
in  the  ftream,  off  Jells-Point: 
Whoojferjfox  SaUt 

80  bon>bound  Water  Calks 

1  chcft  elegaot  FoAvIing  Pieces,  finslcanddou- 
hle  barreled 

I  j.ooo  Dutch  Brick,  and 

Sundry  fiiips  ProvifLins. 
July  14.  SsKea/ft 

ADVERTISEMENT   OF   REDEMPTIONERS  ON   SALE 


This  Indenture  made  the:,;CU.-^Dayof^..y 

in  the  Year  of^Ut,JLord  one  thoufand.  feven  hundred  and  ^,<i^^»/*^^/^  BET  WEEN 

/-»  Z"^.^^,,*^  "f  A<^^^^^^^       of  the  one  Part,  :in^  ^^T^^h^yJ^/^cy^^^ ^^(^^^iy^'^-''^^ 

/Li^  ^^ii^a^  fci^^n^ AJ^^^^^^'^^' )   ~       -of  tTie  other  Parf, 

WITNESSETH,  thafthc  {2:\Aj^be-a^/^i^Jc.;x^'^  doth  hereby  covenant,  promife 

and  grant,  to  and  with  the  faidjj^n^^j  C^iVe-^^^ /it^       -  -  Executors, 

Adminiftratpra^nd  Aflign^.  from  the  Pay  of  the  Date  hereof  until  the  firft  and  next 
Arrival  at  /^Jo'^iif'-^^^:^-'^'^'^^^'^-*'' — in  America,  and  after  for  and  during  the  Term 

of  i^^^Xi,    • Years  tp  ferve  in  fuch  Service  and  Employment  as  the  faid 

(~.J^,^^\2^ot^/u-cy  Of   /^l^Afllgns  fhall  there  employ  ^^<«^^ccordingjp  the 


jflom  of  the  Cotintry  in  the  like  Kind.     In  Confideration  whereof  the  faid^i^^^^ 

■Acx^ -  doth  hereby  covenant  and  grant  to  and  with  the  ^d^x^jyccac/^ 

^^c^^  to  P*y  for /iJ/^t/faflage,  and  to  find  allov//4^<»»«Meat,  Drink,  Apparel 
and  Lodging,  with  other  NecefTaries,  during  the  faid  Term ;  and  at  the  End  of  the  faid 
Term  to  pay  unto  A-t^x  the  ufual  Allowance,  according  to  the  Cuftom  of  the  Country 
in  the  like  Kind.  IN  WITNESS  whereof  the  Parties  above-mentioned  to  thefe 
Indentures  have  interchangeably  put  their  Hands  and  Seals,  the  Day  and  Year  firft 
above  written.  ^ 

Signed,  Sealed,  and  Delivered,  '^ ^^^ 

■     -    fence  of  ^//^-^-    ("  ^x  j^c 


FACSIMILE   OF   AN   INDENTURE 


IIRARY 

OF  THE 

VNIVERStTY  OF  llilNQIS 


INCREASE   IN  IMMIGRATION  69 

immigrant  had  little  left  by  the  time  he  got  to  the  Nether- 
lands. His  possessions,  though  carefully  enshrined  in 
heavy  oaken  boxes  fastened  with  good  iron  bolts,  were 
not  secure  against  the  cupidity  of  newlander  or  sea-cap- 
tain. If  boxes,  trunks,  and  bales  were  numerous,  they 
were  as  likely  as  not  to  be  left  behind,  or  loaded  into  an- 
other vessel.  The  latter  mode  of  disposing  of  the  baggage 
of  immigrants  became  one  of  the  greatest  abuses  of 
transatlantic  transportation.  Well-to-do  immigrants,  who 
had  put  into  their  trunks  linen  or  clothing  necessary  for 
their  journey,  or  perhaps  even  their  food  and  cooking 
utensils,  were  deprived  of  these  necessities  and  comforts 
during  the  whole  voyage.  Often  having  placed  all  their 
earthly  possessions,  including  money,  in  their  chests,  they 
never  saw  them  again,  and  were  compelled  on  arrival  to 
sell  themselves  as  redemptioners  in  preference  to  becoming 
paupers.  Another  tyrannical  measure  was  that  of  holding 
the  entire  body  of  immigrants  on  a  ship  responsible  for 
the  total  transportation  charges.  The  well-to-do  would 
have  to  pay  for  those  who  could  not,  or  be  themselves 
sold  as  redemptioners.  This  arrangement  protected  the 
captain  against  loss,  in  case  a  large  number  of  redemp- 
tioners died  on  the  way,  and  also  gave  him  an  excuse  for 
extortions.  The  Germans  of  Philadelphia  attempted  to 
legislate  against  these  abuses,  beginning  in  1750,  but  for 
a  long  time  were  unsuccessful,  because  of  the  presence 
in  high  places  of  influential  grafters  heavily  interested  in 
the  profits  of  immigrant  transportation. 

While  the  immigration  increased,  strangely  enough  the 
expense  of  a  sea-passage  rose  from  six  or  ten,  to  fourteen 
or  seventeen  louis  d'or  ^  (according  to  Muhlenberg),  thus 

^  The  present  money  equivalent  of  the  louis  d'or  is  about  S4.50.     Its  pur- 
chasing power  at  that  time  was  far  greater  than  this  sum. 


70  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

forcing  more  people  into  the  redemptionist  class.  With 
over-speculation  came  the  crowding  of  large  bodies  of 
immiw'rants  into  vessels  too  small  for  their  numbers.  Their 
baggage  was  then  quite  generally  put  into  another  vessel 
or  lost  altogether.  The  mortality  on  board  increased  terri- 
bly. Sauer,  in  his  newspaper  in  1749,  announced  "  that  in 
that  year  over  two  thousand  had  died  during  transporta- 
tion, mostly  because  they  were  not  treated  like  human 
beings,  being  packed  closely  together,  so  that  the  sick 
breathed  another's  breath,  and  that  from  all  the  unclean- 
ness  and  stench  and  failure  of  food,  diseases  arose  like 
scurvy,  dysentery,  smallpox,  and  other  contagious  sick- 
nesses." It  was  the  rule  in  that  day  that  the  immigrant 
should  furnish  his  own  food  supplies,  but  when  his  bag- 
gage was  not  received  on  board,  the  provision  made  for 
him  was  of  course  not  ample.  Starvation,  and  death  from 
thirst,  were  of  common  occurrence  on  the  long  sea-trips 
consuming  many  months.  Shipwrecks  were  frequent,  and 
the  danger  ever  present  of  being  captured  by  hostile 
fleets  or  pirates.  Heinrich  Keppele,  the  first  president  of 
the  German  Society  of  Pennsylvania,^  arrived  in  America 

*  Mittelberger  claims  that  a  large  number  of  the  shipwrecks  were  not 
reported  in  Germany,  "  for  fear  that  it  might  deter  the  people  from  emi- 
grating, and  induce  them  to  stay  at  home."  (See  p.  36.)  Among  the  many 
shipwrecks  that  he  tells  of,  the  following  is  characteristic  :  "The  following 
fatal  voyage,  where  all  the  passengers  were  Germans,  has  probably  not  be- 
come known  in  Germany  at  all.  In  the  year  1752  a  ship  arrived  at  Phil- 
adelphia, which  was  fully  six  months  at  sea  from  Holland  to  Philadelphia. 
The  ship  had  weathered  many  storms  throughout  the  winter,  and  could  not 
reach  the  laud ;  finally  another  ship  came  to  the  assistance  of  the  half- 
wrecked  and  starved  vessel.  Of  about  340  souls  this  ship  brought  21  persons 
to  Philadelphia,  who  stated  that  they  had  not  only  spent  fully  six  months  at 
sea,  and  had  been  driven  to  the  coast  of  Ireland,  but  that  most  of  the  passen- 
gers had  died  of  starvation,  that  they  had  lost  their  masts  and  sails,  captain 
and  mates,  and  that  the  rest  would  never  have  reached  the  land  if  God  had 
not  sent  another  ship  to  their  aid,  which  brought  them  to  land." 


INCREASE   IN   IMMIGRATION  71 

in  1738,  and  wrote  in  his  diary,  that  of  the  312^  passen- 
gers (a  child  was  counted  as  one  half),  250  died,  not 
including  those  that  died  after  landing.  Sauer  reports  the 
loss  of  160  people  on  one  ship,  150  on  another,  and  only 
13  survivors  on  a  third ;  in  1745  a  ship  was  destined  for 
Philadelphia  with  400  German  passengers,  of  whom  only 
50  survived.  Mittelberger  says :  "  Children  from  one  to 
seven  years  rarely  survived  the  voyage ;  and  many  a  time 
parents  are  compelled  to  see  their  children  die  of  hunger, 
thirst,  or  sickness,  and  then  see  them  cast  into  the  water. 
Few  women  in  confinement  escape  with  their  lives ;  many 
a  mother  is  cast  into  the  water  with  her  child."  The  main 
cause  for  the  enormous  mortality  was  the  packing  to- 
gether ^  of  immigrants  much  as  negro  slaves  were  later 
huddled  together  by  African  slave-traders. 

The  conditions  were  probably  no  worse  for  the  Ger- 
man immigrants  than  for  those  of  other  nationalities.  The 
Germans  of  Philadelphia,  however,  after  repeated  agita- 
tion, succeeded  in  improving  somewhat  existing  condi- 
tions for  German  immigrants.  They  formed  in  December, 
1764,  the  "  Deutsche  Gesellschaft  von  Pennsylvanien," 
the  first  of  those  charitable  German  organizations  in  the 
seacoast  cities  of  America,  that  were  founded  to  extend 
a  helping  hand  to  the  immigrants  of  their  own  nation- 
ality. A  law  was  drafted  and  put  through  the  Pennsyl- 
vania legislature  by  the  influential  Germans  of  this  soci- 
ety, rendering  impossible  the  tyrannies  and  extortions 
before  practiced  by  sea-captains  and  immigration  agents, 
particularly  in  regard  to  the  abuses  already  mentioned, 

1  Packed  like  herring  and  sold  as  slaves,  says  Pastor  Kunze,  Hallesche 
Nachrichten,  p.  1377.  Reprint,  vol.  ii,  p.  709.  Under  date  of  May  16, 1773,  he 
says :  "Last  week  I  heard  of  a  ship  bearing  1500  Germans,  of  whom  1100 
died  at  sea." 


72 


THE   GERMAX   ELEMENT 


the  separation  of  immlgTants  from  their  bagg-age,  over- 
crowding, and  hohiiug  a  shipload  responsible  for  the 
prolits  of  the  captain.  The  society  likewise  established 
the  immigrant's  right  of  appeal  to  American  courts  of 
justice,  in  case  of  unjust  treatment.  A  more  effective  law, 
'•  an  act  for  regulating  the  importation  of  German  and 
other  passengers,"  was  passed  by  the  Pennsylvania  legis- 
lature in  1818. 

The  sale  of  redemptioners  was  not  abolished  until  1820. 
With  its  manv  evils  the  svstem  had  also  had  o-ood  effects. 
Undoubtedly  the  rapid  increase  of  the  population  of 
Pennsvlvania  was  due  to  the  redemptionist  system,  which 
allowed  tens  of  thousands  of  immigrants  to  come  to  Amer- 
ica, who  would  not  have  been  able  to  do  so  for  lack  of 
means.  The  period  of  service  frequently  became  a  train- 
ino-  school.  The  Swedish  traveler  Kalm  said  :  ^  "'  Manv  of 
the  Germans  who  come  hither  bring  money  enough  with 
them  to  pav  their  passage,  but  rather  suff'er  themselves  to 
be  sold,  with  a  view  that  during  their  servitude  they  may 
o'et  some  knowledo-e  of  the  lano-uao'e  and  qualities  of  the 
countrv  and  the  like,  that  thev  mav  be  better  able  to  con- 
sider  what  they  shall  do,  when  they  have  got  their  liberty." 
Stories  are  found  in  German-American  literature,  of  re- 
demptioners," who  concealed  within  a  bundle  of  old  rags 
their  precious  coins,  for  which,  as  soon  as  their  period  of 
service  had  closed,  they  bought  land  near  the  possessions 
of  their  masters,  and  during  the  course  of  years,  advanc- 
ino-  in  means  throuo-h  their  industrvand  thrift,  became  ulti- 
matelv  the  owners  of  the  estates  of  their  former  masters. 

'  Peter  Kalm.  Travt\s  in  yorth  Amtrica,  vol.  i.  p.  304.  2 J  edition.  London, 
1772. 

»  Cf.  Sealsfield,  Morton  oder  die  grosse  Tour,  I  Tell,  Kap.  i.  pp.  64  f.; 
Kiirnberger,  Der  Amerikamiide  :  MoUhansen,  Der  Pedlar,  Roman  aus  dem 
Amerikanischen  Lehen,  and  Das  Vermachtnis  des  Pedlars. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    FIRST    EXODUS,    THE    PALATINE   IMaOGRATION    TO 

NEW    YORK 

Kocherthal  and  his  followers  —  Founding  of  Newburgh-on-tbe-Hudson,  1709 

—  The  exodus  of  1710  ;  arrival  in  London  ;  separation  into  various 
groups,  transportation  to  Ireland,  South  Carolina,  etc.  —  The  main  group 
goes  with  Governor  Hunter  to  New  York  —  Hunter's  plan  and  its  failure 

—  The  fortunes  and  migrations  of  the  Palatines  in  New  York  ;  East  and 
West  Camp,  Schoharie,  the  Mohawk,  Tulpehocken,  etc. — John  Peter 
Zenger's  independent  newspaper,  and  his  stand  for  the  liberty  of  the 
press. 

Throughout  the  seventeenth  century  there  had  been 
constant  intercourse  between  Eno-land  and  the  Palatinate, 
sanctioned  and  stimulated  by  the  royal  marriage  of  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  James  I,  with  the  Elector  Palatine, 
Frederick  V,  already  referred  to  as  the  Winter  King. 
Their  son,  the  wise  ruler  Karl  Ludwig,  Elector  Palatine, 
was  the  cousin  of  Charles  II  and  James  II,  kinos  of 
England.  There  was  also  between  the  two  countries  the 
common  bond  of  the  Protestant  faith.  England  was 
instrumental  in  effecting  the  Religious  Declaration  of 
1705,  that  granted  the  Reformed  Church  toleration  in  the 
Palatinate. 

The  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession  in  1707  devastated 
a  portion  of  the  Palatinate  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine, 
whereby  hundreds  of  Palatines  were  rendered  homeless. 
Among  these  was  Joshua  von  Kocherthal,  who,  in  Janu-  \^ 
ary,  1708,  applied  to  an  English  agency  in  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main,  for  passes  and  money  to  go  to  England.  He 
included  in  his  request  several  other  families,  in  all  sixty- 


74  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

one  persons,  who,  when  no  help  could  be  obtained,  to- 
gether left  their  home  without  the  consent  of  the  Elector 
Palatine,  and  on  their  own  resources  traveled  by  way  of 
Holland  to  London.  Arriving  there,  they  were  too  poor 
to  live  without  aid,  wherefore  the  generous  Queen  Anne 
allowed  each  Palatine  a  shilling  a  day  for  his  support. 
The  charitable  deed  of  the  crown  was  imitated  by  several 
Londoners,  and  when  Kocherthal  ajDplied  for  the  means 
of  transportation  to  the  American  colonies,  the  Lords  of 
Trade  decided  to  send  the  immigrants  to  the  colony  of 
New  York.  There  it  was  thought  they  might  be  used  to 
settle  on  the  frontier,  as  a  buffer  against  the  Indians,  or 
else  be  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  naval  stores.  Be- 
fore sailing  they  were  naturalized  as  British  subjects,^  and 
then  placed  upon  a  royal  transport  under  Lord  Lovelace, 
the  newly-appointed  governor  of  New  York. 

The  colonists  sailed  about  the  middle  of  October,  1708, 
and  arrived  at  New  York  during  the  last  days  of  that  year. 
Lord  Lovelace  gave  them  land  on  the  Hudson  to  the  north 
of  the  Highlands,  beginning  at  the  mouth  of  the  Quas- 
saick.  The  colonists  called  the  settlement  "  Neuburg," 
after  the  city  of  the  same  name  in  the  Upper  Palatin- 
ate {Oherpfah).  This  is  the  beginning  of  the  busy  and 
prosperous  city  of  Newburgh,  the  county-seat  of  Orange 
County,  New  York,  rivaling  in  beauty  of  landscape  more 
venerable  cities  on  the  Rhine  and  Danube.  Tracts  of  land 
of  one  hundred  to  three  hundred  acres  were  portioned  out 

1  The  names  of  the  Palatines  naturalized  August  25,  1708,  were,  besides 
Kocherthal  :  Lorenz,  Schwisser,  Rennau,  Volk,  Weigandt  Weber,  Plettel, 
Fischer,  Glilch,  Tiirk,  Rose,  Weimar,  Faber,  Fiere,  and  Schiinemann.  Most 
of  these  were  men  between  twenty-five  and  forty  years  of  age;  only  one  man 
was  fifty-two.  They  were  vine-growers,  weavers,  smiths,  carpenters,  or  repre- 
sentatives of  other  trades.  Among  those  given  lands,  not  mentioned  in  the 
naturalization  list,  were  Lockstadt  and  Hennicke.  Kapp,  Geschichte  der 
Deutschen  im  Staate  New  York,  p.  80. 


THE   PALATINE  IMMIGRATION  75 

to  the  settlers,  fifty  acres  to  each  individual,  whether  man, 
woman,  or  child.  Five  hundred  acres  were  reserved  for 
the  building  of  a  church,  forty  acres  for  roads  and  high- 
ways. ^ 

Lord  Lovelace  died  in  May,  1709,  —  a  great  misfortune 
for  the  colonists.  He  was  their  friend,  and  had  advanced 
money  for  their  support.^  The  Palatines  were  compelled 
to  petition  the  colonial  government  for  the  maintenance 
promised  them  the  first  year,  but  as  they  happened  to 
mention  the  fact  that  nineteen  of  their  number  had  with- 
drawn from  Lutheranism  and  turned  Pietists,  the  discrim- 
inating government  excluded  the  latter  from  its  benefits. 
After  an  investigation,  however,  of  the  meaning  of  Piet- 
ism, by  a  special  committee,  supplies  were  furnished  to 
them  also,  just  as  to  the  other  colonists.  Support  was  a 
necessity  for  all  colonists  during  their  first  year,  the  first 
season  being  spent  in  clearing  the  forest  and  building  rude 
habitations,  essential  labors  before  a  crop  could  be  raised. 
"  The  Palatine  Parish  by  the  Quassaick "  was  the  name 
given  to  the  whole  settlement  included  in  the  German  Pat- 
ent, as  constituted  about  ten  years  later  (1719).  The  land 
in  this  region  was  not  as  fertile  as  was  hoped  for,  the  stony 
hillsides  and  rocky  soil  giving  no  rich  returns,  and  in  con- 
sequence many  of  the  original  inhabitants  of  Newburgh 
sold  their  lands  to  "  Dutch  and  English  New-comers  "  and 
departed  for  Schoharie  County  to  the  north,  or  to  the 
Pennsylvania  valleys  of  the  Swatara  and  Tulpehocken.  In 
this  way  Newburgh  lost  its  distinctly  German  character. 

Kocherthal  was  a  man  of  unusual  power  over  his  con- 
stituents, of  versatile  occupation,  being  minister,  farmer, 

1  Cobb,  S.  H.,  The  Story  of  the  Palatines,  chap,  iii,  p.  66,  etc.  Putnam,  1897. 
Kapp,  supra,  pp.  82  £f. 

'  His  widow  did  not  receive  a  repayment  from  the  government  until  many- 
years  later. 


76  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

man  of  affairs,  leader  of  men,  whose  sturdiness  of  char- 
acter impressed  its  stamp  upon  an  entire  community,  — 
an  exceptional  individual,  one  might  say,  if  the  exception 
were  not  of  so  frequent  occurrence  in  German  colonial 
history,  with  such  examples  as  Pastorius,  Conrad  Weiser, 
Giessendanner,  Joist  Hite,  and  a  succession  of  others  down 
to  the  more  recent  Missourians,  Follenius  and  Friedrich 
Miinch.  Kocherthal  returned  to  England  for  a  short  visit, 
and  then,  accompanying  Governor  Hunter,  sailed  again 
for  New  York,  in  1710,  with  the  great  migration  of  the 
Palatines.  He  organized  a  Lutheran  church  at  West  Camp 
and  probably  one  also  on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  A 
Lutheran  himself,  he  was  acceptable  nevertheless  to  the 
Germans  of  the  Reformed  church,  and  was  regarded  with 
reverence  by  the  Germans  on  either  side  of  the  Hudson. 
He  was  frequently  consulted  by  the  provincial  authorities 
for  advice  and  assistance,  when  entanglements  occurred 
with  the  German  colonists.  He  died  and  was  buried  in 
1719  at  West  Camp  on  the  Hudson.* 

The  settlement  on  the  Quassaick  was  but  the  forerun- 
ner of  the  extensive  immigration  that  followed  shortly 
after.  The  records  are  scant  as  to  the  inception  and  initial 
progress  of  that  movement,  but  in  addition  to  the  im- 
pelling forces  enumerated  in  the  last  chapter,  an  imme- 
diate cause  must  have  been  the  extraordinary  severity  of 
the  winter  of  1708-09.  In  the  words  of  Conrad  Weiser, 

^  The  story  of  the  Newburgh  church  bell  is  an  interesting  little  episode  in 
connection  with  Kocherthal.  It  seems  that  the  good  Queen  Anne  presented 
Kocherthal,  before  his  departure  (and  on  his  request),  with  a  church  bell  for 
a  Lutheran  house  of  worship.  Colonial  conditions  never  permitted  rapid  real- 
ization of  devout  hopes,  and  for  a  long  time  the  bell  was  loaned  to  the  church 
of  New  York  City,  until  the  Quassaick  Parish  might  be  able  to  build  a 
church.  The  bell  was  returned,  probably  in  1733,  when  Quassaick  got  its 
church,  still  known  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  as  the  Glebe 
School  House. 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  77 

then  a  boy  of  twelve  years,  recorded  in  his  autobiography : 
"  Birds  perished  on  the  wing,  beasts  in  their  lairs,  and 
mortals  fell  dead  in  the  way."  The  success  of  Kocherthal, 
in  gaining  the  assistance  of  Queen  Anne,  encouraged 
others  to  adopt  the  same  course,  and  seek  new  homes 
beyond  the  sea.  Religious  persecution,  political  oppres- 
sion, and  economic  ruin  had  made  intolerable  their  dear 
native  land ;  impending  ruin,  famine,  and  the  hope  of  aid 
now  quickened  their  resolution,  united  their  action,  and, 
as  if  by  a  sudden  common  impulse,  a  vast  number  of 
Palatines  flocked  to  the  shores  of  England.  The  migra- 
tion was  probably  one  concerted  at  home,  and  when  large 
numbers  appeared  at  Rotterdam,  the  first  gathering-place, 
they  were  speedily  shipped  off  to  London.  They  began  to 
arrive  there  in  May,  1709,  and  by  the  end  of  June  their 
numbers  rose  to  five  thousand.  The  number  was  nearly 
doubled  before  August,  and  by  October  thirteen  thousand 
Palatines  were  in  London.  These  numbers  are  by  no 
means  exaggerated  ;  indeed,  the  popular  impression  re- 
ported was  that  thirty  thousand  Palatines  swarmed  to  the 
English  coast,  "  a  migrating  epidemic  having  seized  on  the 
stricken  people."  London,  then  no  modern  city  capable 
of  harboring  hundreds  of  thousands  of  strangers  without 
a  tremor  of  excitement,  was  seriously  embarrassed  by  this 
influx  of  foreigners,  most  of  whom  were  reduced  to  pau- 
perism, necessarily  making  an  appeal  to  the  charity  of  the 
nation.  It  will  always  redound  to  the  glory  of  England 
that  her  management  of  this  serious  problem  under  trying 
conditions  was  most  humane  and  generous.  Starvation 
staring  the  needy  Palatines  in  the  face,  England  for 
months  provided  them  with  food.  Having  no  homes,  they 
were  sheltered  in  barns,  empty  dwellings,  warehouses,  and 
a  thousand  tents  taken  from  the  army  stores.  The  queen 


78  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

allowed  eacli  ninepence  per  day,  for  subsistence,  and  such 
lodgings  as  could  best  be  obtained.  The  paupers  of  Lon- 
don grew  envious  of  the  provision  made  for  the  foreign- 
ers, and  filed  complaints  against  such  exceptional  treat- 
ment. 

What  to  do  with  the  hordes  of  foreigcners  was  the  next 
question  before  the  Lords  of  Trade.  The  numbers,  how- 
ever, were  so  large  that  they  could  not  easily  be  disposed 
of.  A  severe  discrimination  was  made  in  the  first  place 
against  the  Catholics,  who  numbered  about  one  tenth  of 
the  whole.  They  were  all  sent  back  to  their  homes,  except 
a  few  hundred,  who  chose  the  alternative  of  becoming  Pro- 
testants. The  remaining  Palatines  wished  for  a  settlement 
in  America,  and  an  interesting  story,  told  by  Conrad 
Weiser  (reported  by  Muhlenberg), *  explains  the  origin  of 
this  fixed  idea  of  theirs.  It  happened  that  several  Indian 
chiefs  were  visiting  London,  at  the  time  when  the  Pala- 
tine exiles  appeared  in  great  numbers.  The  sight  of  the 
homeless  and  half-starved  immigrants  mightily  engaged 
the  sympathies  of  the  redmen,  one  of  whom,  unsolicited, 
made  a  free-will  offering  to  the  queen  of  a  tract  of  land 
on  the  Schoharie,  in  New  York,  for  the  use  and  benefit 
of  the  exiled  Germans.  It  has  frequently  been  evident  in 
American  history  that  the  Indian,  in  spite  of  his  savage 
instincts,  could  on  occasion  be  generous;  such,  indeed, 
was  to  be  the  experience  of  the  Palatine  settlers  with  the 
Schoharie  Indians. 

As  stated  above,  there  were  reported  in  London  an  ag- 
gregate of  thirteen  thousand  Palatines,  in  October,  1709. 
A  large  number  of  them  were  undoubtedly  provided  for 
by  their  entering  various  trades  and  pursuits  by  land  and 

1  In  Hallesche  Nachrichten,  reprint,  vol.  i,  p.  613,  The  elder  Muhlenberg  is 
very  accurate  in  his  reports,  and  Conrad  Weiser  had  a  good  memory. 


THE  PALATINE   IMMIGEATION  79 

sea.  For  example,  Luttrell^  states  that  the  merchants  of 
Bedford  and  Barnstaple  who  were  engaged  in  the  New- 
foundland fisheries  designed  employing  five  hundred  of 
them  in  their  service.  About  five  thousand  must  have 
been  disposed  of  in  similar  ways,  as  we  can  account  for 
only  seventy-five  hundred  persons  that  were  shipped  to 
various  colonies.  In  the  first  division  about  thirty-eight 
hundred  persons,  five  hundred  families,  were  sent  to  Ire^ 
land  and  settled  in  the  province  of  Munster.  Being  pro- 
vided with  land,  they  built  homes  and  became  a  sturdy 
stock,  useful  and  influential  in  the  country.^  We  learn 
from  various  travelers  that  they  preserved  their  native 
character  and  even  their  language  for  a  long  time. 

The  second  large  contingent  of  Palatines  was  shipped  to 
the  Carolinas,  sailing  from  England  in  the  early  autumn 
of  1709.  This  expedition  was  under  the  leadership  of 
Graffenried  and  Michell,  natives  of  Bern,  Switzerland. 
They  numbered  over  six  hundred,  and  founded  Newbern, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Neuse  River,  in  the  present  state 
of  North  Carolina.^  No  portion  of  the  Palatines  settled  in 
Virginia  under  the  auspices  of  Governor  Spotswood,  his 
settlers  at  Germanna  having  come  from  Siegen,  Germany.* 

A  much  larger  number,  over  three  thousand  persons, 
were  destined  for  the  colony  of  New  York.  Most  of  these 
had  in  mind  the  Schoharie  region  as  their  promised  land, 

^  Diary,  vi,  496;  quoted  by  Cobb,  The  Story  of  the  Palatines,  chap,  iii, 
p.  84. 

^  Pennsylvania  Historical  Magazine,  vol.  x,  p.  381.  The  Pennsylvania  German 
Society,  vol.  vii,  p.  335.  Descended  from  this  stock  were  the  founders  of 
Methodism  in  America,  Philip  Embury  (Amberg)  and  Barbara  Heck.  Cf. 
Ireland  and  the  Centenary  of  American  Methodism,  by  Cook  (Crook). 

3  See  Chapter  viir,  pp.  213-215. 

^  Cobb  and  others  are  here  in  error.  Compare  the  more  recent  investiga- 
tions published  in  the  Virginia  Magazine,  vols,  x-xiii.  Also  below,  Chapter 
VII,  pp.  178  £e. 


,/ 


80  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

and  would  hot  be  content,  as  later  events  proved,  until 
they  had  ultimately  reached  its  beautiful  meadows  and 
fertile  hills.  The  new  governor  of  the  colony.  Colonel 
Robert  Hunter,  had  in  mind  the  employment  of  the  Pala- 
tines in  the  manufacture  of  tar  and  naval  stores.  He 
accompanied  the  expedition,  sailing  in  April,  1710,  with 
the  commission  to  settle  the  Germans  on  the  Hudson  or 
Mohawk.  The  Palatines  were  distributed  on  ten  ships,  on 
which  they  must  have  been  closely  crowded,  as  the  mor- 
tality among  them  was  enormous.  According  to  the  gov- 
ernor's account  470  persons  died  of  ship  fever  during  the 
voyage,  and  250  more  after  their  arrival.  There  remained 
2227  Palatines  for  the  settlements  in  New  York,  after  a 
loss  of  773  persons,  if  there  were  3000  at  the  beginning.^ 
Governor  Hunter  speaks  of  the  loss  of  1700  among  4000 
immigrants,  while  other  official  documents  mention  only 
3000,  which  is  probably  the  correct  figure. 

One  of  the  ships,  the  Herbert,  was  lost  on  the  east  end 
of  Long  Island.  The  people  seem  to  have  been  rescued, 
but  their  sroods  were  much  damag'ed.  This  accident  was 
probably  the  origin  of  the  legend,  immortalized  by  Whit- 
tier,  concerning  a  ship  called  the  Palatine,  localized  on 
Block  Island  (Manisees)  and  elsewhere.  One  tradition  re- 
presents the  vessel  as  laden  with  treasure,  belonging  to 
the  Palatines,  and  by  them  hidden  from  view  until  the 
time  immediately  before  disembarking,  when  the  sight  of 
their  gold  excited  the  grasping  greed  of  the  crew,  who  to 
accomplish  the  robbery  slew  every  one  of  the  immigrants. 
In  Whittier's  poem,  "  The  Palatine,"  wreckers  on  the 
island  decoyed  the  ship  by  false  lights,  caused  the  death 
of  all  on  board,  and  then  "  they  burned  the  wreck  of  the 
Palatine."  But  the  phantom  ship  reappeared  at  each  anni- 

1  Kapp's  figures,  p.  96.  Cf.  also  Cobb,  p.  127. 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  81 

versary  of  the  crime,  and  haunted  the  imagination  of  the 
■wreckers,  never  allowing  them  an  opportunity  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  their  ill-ofotten  ofain.' 

So  large  a  company  of  immigrants  could  not  be  received 
in  the  small  town  of  New  York,  and  the  Palatines,  accord- 
ingly, were  landed  on  Nutten  Island.^  A  proclamation  was 
made  preventing  extortionate  prices  for  bread  and  provis- 
ions, and  a  small  government  was  devised  for  the  colonists. 
Prominent  above  all  others  was  Johann  Conrad  Weiser, 
father  of  an  equally  famous  son,  a  descendant  of  the 
magistrate  of  Great  Anspach,  Wiirtemberg.  The  death 
of  his  wife,  the  care  of  a  large  family,  and  the  national 
calamities  induced  him  to  join  the  emigrating  thousands. 
All  of  his  fifteen  children,  save  two,  who  were  married, 
went  with  him.  He  was  easily  the  chief  among  his  people 
through  his  ability,  experience,  and  independence  of  char- 
acter. Governor  Hunter  and  others  in  authority,  com- 
plained much  of  his  stubbornness,  which  indeed  resembled 
that  of  Martin  Luther,  being  born  of  the  love  of  truth 
and  faith  in  ultimate  justice.  Weiser  was  a  stalwart  fighter 
before  the  Lord,  a  willing  martyr  to  the  cause  of  individ- 
ual rights  for  the  American  colonist.  The  first  clash  with 
authority  occurred  when  children  ^  were  forcibly  taken 

^  For  still,  on  many  a  moonless  night, 

From  Kingston  Head  and  from  Montauk  Light, 
The  spectre  kindles  and  burns  in  sight. 

Now  low  and  dim,  now  clear  and  higher, 
Leaps  up  the  terrible  Ghost  of  Fire, 
Then,  slowly  sinking,  the  flames  expire. 

And  the  wise  Sound  skippers,  though  the  skies  be  fine, 
Reef  their  sails,  when  they  see  the  sign, 
Of  the  blazing  wreck  of  the  Palatine ! 

^  Now  Governor's  Island. 

^  There  were  seventy-five  boys  and  girls  thus  apprenticed,  some,  by  no 
means  all,  as  was  given  out,  were  orphans.    In  the  case  of  the  two  sons  of 


82  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

from  their  parents  and  apprenticed  to  people  in  New  York 
City.  Two  of  the  sons  of  Weiser  were  thus  separated  from 
their  father,  whose  protests  were  without  avail.  Among 
the  forty-one  boys  thus  apprenticed  was  John  Peter  Zen- 
ger,  who  was  given  to  the  printer,  William  Bradford  of 
New  York,  and  wdll  be  mentioned  below  for  the  promi- 
nent part  he  took  in  the  struggle  for  the  liberty  of  the 
colonial  press. 

In  July,  1710,  Governor  Hunter  despatched  the  sur- 
veyor-general of  the  province  "  to  survey  the  land  on  the 
Mohaques  River,  particularly  the  Skohare,  to  which  the 
Indians  have  no  pretence."  This  probably  means  that  the 
Indians  had  surrendered  their  rights  (there  had  been  no 
sale  or  conquest),  and  furnishes  another  link  in  the  chain 
of  evidence,  that  the  Schoharie  district  had  actually  been 
given  by  the  Indians  to  Queen  Anne  for  the  colonization 
of  the  Palatines. 

In  the  estimation  of  the  governor,  Schoharie  possessed 
good  land  for  cultivation,  but  an  insufficient  number  of 
pine  forests.  He  wanted  pine  forests  for  the  manufacture 
of  tar  and  pitch,  his  ambition  being  centred  on  providing 
all  the  necessary  stores  for  the  English  navy,  even  hemp, 
from  the  resources  and  labor  of  this  colony,  thus  saving 
the  Admiralty's  heavy  expense  in  buying  from  Norway, 
Sweden,  and  Russia,  a  heavy  tax  also  upon  English  pride. 
Governor  Hunter  thought  that  the  two  requisites,  of  pine 
forest  and  good  land,  were  combined  in  a  tract  which  he 
bought  from  the  crafty  Robert  Livingston,  an  area  of  six 
thousand  acres,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Hudson,  north 

Weiser,  their  brother,  Conrad,  said  that  he  never  saw  them  again.  The 
names  of  the  forty-one  boys,  and  their  ages  (mostly  between  ten  and  fifteen, 
some  much  below),  are  given  in  Rupp's  Thirty  Thousand  Names  of  Immi- 
grants, p.  445.  They  are  also  given  by  O'Callaghan  in  the  Documentary 
History  of  New  York. 


EARLY   GERMAN   SETTLEMENTS   IN  NEW  YORK 


UfRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  BUNOIS 


I 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  83 

of  the  present  town  of  Rhinebeck,  a  part  of  Livingston 
Manor.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  there  were  some 
crown  lands,  probably  an  additional  inducement  for  the 
purchase.  The  colony  on  that  side  was  called  West  Camp, 
in  distinction  from  East  Camp,  the  name  given  to  the 
principal  settlement.  The  latter  was  composed  of  four  vil- 
lages :  Hunterstown,  Queensburg,  Annsburg,  and  Hays- 
bury,  with  a  total  of  1189  colonists  in  1711.  West  Camp 
was  composed  of  three  villages:  Elizabethtown,  George- 
town, and  New  Village,  with  614  inhabitants,  making  the 
total  for  the  two,  1803  colonists. 

Over  four  hundred  Palatines  were  left  in  New  York 
City  (424  out  of  2227),  most  of  them  widows,  single 
women,  and  children,  not  adaptable  to  the  "great  and 
good  design  "  of  making  tar  and  pitch.  A  record  of  their  ^ 
names  is  available  in  the  annals  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
of  New  York  City. 

The  hardships  that  followed  fell  solely  to  the  lot  of  the 
Palatines  in  East  Camp,  on  Livingston  Manor,  no  serious 
effort  being  made  on  the  west  shore  toward  the  manufac- 
ture of  naval  stores.  Governor  Hunter  possessed  no  quali- 
fications for  the  great  undertaking  which  he  was  making 
his  life  work,  save  his  enthusiasm.  He  possessed  no  tech- 
nical knowledge,  and  the  overseer,  who  was  expected  to 
fill  the  gap,  proved  incompetent.  The  management  was  not 
wise  enough  to  import  successful  operators  from  Norway, 
Sweden,  or  Russia,  who  might  have  produced  a  far  better 
yield  from  the  trees.  Governor  Hunter  was  a  soldier,  and 
instituted  military  methods,  demanding  implicit  obedience 
from  all  that  were  in  his  employ,  particularly  from  the 
Palatines,  for  whom  he  had  apparently  no  particular  sym- 
pathy, and  who,  on  their  part,  believed  they  were  being 
cheated.    Governor  Hunter's  blunt  and  tactless  manner 


84  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

roused  the  prejudices  of  his  laborers  against  the  under- 
taking, and,  instead  of  making  them  and  their  leaders 
his  main  support,  he  relied  on  the  colonial  aristocrats, 
who  used  him  merely  to  advance  their  own  interests.  The 
shrewdest  of  them  was  Robert  Livingston,  who  gained 
not  only  by  the  sale  of  a  large  tract  of  land,  but  was 
awarded  also  the  profitable  contract  of  feeding  the  Pala- 
tines (adults  at  sixpence,  children  at  fourpence  per  day). 
It  was  the  opinion  of  contemporaries  on  either  side  of  the 
water  that  Livingston  grew  richer  daily  on  this  contract, 
and  that  he  was  the  only  man  who  was  benefited  at  all 
by  the  great  scheme  of  making  naval  stores.  Even  Hunter 
himself  soon  wrote  in  a  letter  to  General  Nicholson,  that 
he  had  bestowed  too  much  confidence  upon  Livingston, 
the  most  selfish  and  ungrateful  man  in  the  world. 

When  the  Palatines  came  to  America,  the  year  was 
already  too  far  advanced  for  them  to  begin  work.  It  was 
autumn,  and  the  people  had  to  be  fed  for  the  winter  and 
up  to  the  time  when  work  might  begin  in  the  spring.  This 
enforced  period  of  idleness  could  not  but  prove  harmful. 
Not  only  was  it  a  financial  loss  to  the  management,  but 
also  a  great  misfortune  for  the  colonists,  idleness  breeding 
discontent,  and  a  paternal  regime  destroying  the  inde- 
pendence necessary  for  the  permanent  prosperity  of  a 
colony.  The  Palatines  had  been  promised  good  land,  for 
the  acquisition  of  which  they  would  not  have  felt  work 
as  a  hardship ;  but  the  labor  of  serfs  in  the  system  now 
imposed  upon  them,  without  hope  of  future  independ- 
ence, they  felt  to  be  an  outrage.  Nevertheless,  the  be- 
ginnings were  made  in  good  earnest.  Overcoming  their 
dissatisfaction,  the  colonists  cut  a  large  number  of  trees,^ 

1  Nearly  one  hundred  thousand  trees  were  cut,  and  even  boys  and  girls 
■were  employed  in  gathering  knots,  "  that  no  hands  may  be  idle." 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  85 

and  in  return  received  agricultural  implements  for  the 
cultivation  of  their  land. 

The  minister  Kocherthal  had  warned  the  authorities  con- 
cerning the  irrepressible  opposition  of  the  people  against 
the  preparation  of  tar,  and  of  their  desire  to  leave  East 
Camp  for  the  promised  land  of  Schoharie.  When  there- 
fore an  orofanized  revolt  beg-an  to  form,  Governor  Hunter 
was  ready  to  apply  firm  measures.  He  had  ordered  a  com- 
pany of  soldiers  to  come  from  Albany,  and  on  their  ar- 
rival called  the  leaders  of  the  colonists  before  him.  In  the 
hearing  before  the  governor  they  explained  the  causes  of 
their  discontent,  being  imposed  upon,  as  they  thought,  in 
violation  of  the  conditions  of  their  contract.  It  seems  they 
deceived  themselves,  or  did  not  understand  fully  the  terms 
of  the  contract,  for,  as  we  read  it,  we  must  concede  that 
the  governor's  position  was  correct  on  the  point  that  the 
contract  required  labor  from  the  colonists  in  the  manu- 
facture of  ship  stores,  in  return  for  the  expenses  of  their 
transportation  and  sustenance.^  During  the  parley  three  or 
four  hundred  of  the  Palatines  came  to  the  rescue  of  their 
leaders,  thinking  that  they  were  in  danger.  They  feigned 
a  desire  to  speak  to  the  governor,  but  withdrew  when 
they  saw  that  their  leaders  were  not  in  captivity  or  peril. 
A  large  troop  of  armed  men  had  been  ordered  to  reinforce 
Hunter's  soldiers,  and  with  their  aid  the  Palatines  were 
dispersed,  and  subsequently  disarmed  in  their  several  vil- 
lages. Peace  was  thus  restored,  but,  self-government  being 
taken  away  from  the  colonists,  they  were  reduced  to  the 
same  level  as  "  indented  servants." 

In  June,  1711,  the  governor  established  a  council  to 

*  The  governor,  however,  allowed  no  weight  to  be  attached  to  another 
article  of  the  contract,  viz.,  that  after  the  outlay  was  repaid,  each  colonist 
was  to  receive  forty  acres  of  land  in  fee-simple,  forty  acres  for  each  head  — 
man,  woman,  or  child. 


86  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

take  charge  of  the  government  of  the  Palatines  and  the 
manufacture  of  ship  stores.  This  consisted  of  Robert 
Livingston,  Richard  Sackett,  the  special  overseer  and  ex- 
pert already  referred  to,  John  Cast,  Gottfried  Wulfen, 
Andreus  Bugge,  and  Hermann  Schiinemann.  Three  of 
them,  provided  Livingston  or  Sackett  were  present,  had 
the  right  to  inflict  punishment  for  disobedience  or  misde- 
meanors, even  to  the  extent  of  corporal  chastisement  or 
imprisonment.  For  every  village  there  was  an  executive : 
on  the  east  side,  J.  P.  Kneiskern  for  Hunterstown,  J.  C. 
Weiser  for  Queensburg,  H.  Windecker  for  Annsberg,  G. 
C.  Fuchs  for  Haysbury ;  on  the  west  side  of  the  Hud- 
son, for  Elizabethtown,  J.  C.  Gerlach,  for  Georgetown,  J. 
Mauch,  and  for  New  Village,  P.  P.  Grauberger. 

The  Palatines  were  no  cowards,  and  when  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  same  year  the  province  of  New  York  was  to 
furnish  a  quota  of  soldiers  for  the  expedition  to  Canada, 
it  was  decided  to  send  three  hundred  Palatines,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  three  hundred  and  fifty  "  Christians  "  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  Indians  of  Long  Island.  The  requisite 
number  was  easily  found  and  placed  under  the  command 
of  J.  P.  Kneiskern  as  captain.  Germans  in  this  expedition 
for  the  first  time  served  in  the  same  reg-iment  with  In- 
dians,  the  army  being  under  the  supreme  command  of 
Colonel  Schuyler.  The  Palatines  received  no  pay,  though 
their  fitness  was  acknowledged  generally,  and  on  their 
return,  perhaps  from  fear  of  revolt.  Governor  Hunter 
deprived  them  of  their  weapons.  In  the  next  winter  a 
number  of  them  served  in  the  garrisons  at  Albany. 

The  high-handed  treatment  of  the  Palatines  by  the  gov- 
ernor, his  utter  refusal  ^  to  encourage  their  hopes  of  settle- 

1  In  a  passion  the  g-overnor  stamped  npon  the  ground  and  said  :  "  Here  is 
your  land"  (meaning  the  almost  barren  rocks)  "where  you  must  live  and 
die."  Documentary  History,  vol.  ill,  p.  424;  Cobb,  pp.  156-157. 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  87 

raent  In  Schoharie,  and  the  greed  of  Livingston,  who  made 
the  largest  possible  profits  out  of  the  food  supplies,  were 
causes  producing  the  greatest  amount  of  friction,  but  not 
necessarily  such  as  to  ruin  the  colony.  The  disasters  that 
now  arose  came  from  the  incompetency  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  enterprise.  The  land  selected,  in  spite  of  the 
praises  that  had  been  sung  of  it,  now  proved  to  be  poor 
in  forest  growth  and  unfertile.  The  trees,  after  cutting, 
were  not  properly  prepared.  Overseer  Sackett  not  being 
equipped  with  sufficient  experience  or  expert  knowledge ; 
moreover,  after  being  poorly  prepared,  the  trees  were  not 
properly  cared  for.  In  consequence,  the  work  done  did 
not  bring  proportionate  returns.  Instead  of  thirty  thou- 
sand barrels  of  tar,  only  two  hundred  were  obtained,  by 
the  summer  of  1712,  out  of  one  hundred  thousand  trees. 
At  home  the  Lords  of  Trade  lost  confidence  in  Hunter's 
ability  and  particularly  in  that  of  his  advisers ;  more 
especially  did  they  regret  his  falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  ill-reputed  Livingston.  Altogether  Hunter  had  paid 
out  over  thirty-two  thousand  pounds  for  the  Palatines,  and 
received  for  his  expenses  only  ten  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred, so  that  the  home  government  owed  him  over  twenty- 
one  thousand  pounds.^  He  struggled  for  more  than  ten 
years  to  get  back  his  outlay,  drawn  from  his  private  for- 
tune, and  it  is  not  known  definitely  whether  he  was  ever 
reimbursed  for  what  he  had  expended.^  More  than  twenty 
thousand  pounds  had  gone  into  the  pocket  of  Livingston 

1  Cf.  Kapp,  p.  110  ;  Cobb,  pp.  181  flP. 

^  When  in  the  year  1722  the  Lords  required  of  Governor  Hunter,  who  then 
had  been  recalled,  that  he  present  the  receipts  for  money  paid  to  the  Pala- 
tines, the  latter  were  reluctant  to  give  them,  fearing  some  new  treachery. 
The  request  was  made  with  the  usual  tactlessness,  namely,  that  if  they  would 
not  sign  the  receipts  they  would  be  driven  from  the  country.  They  therefore 
refused  to  sign,  and  waited  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  threat.  Cf.  Kapp, 
p.  110. 


88  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

for  supplies  furnished  the  Palatines ;  moreover,  his  land, 
bordering  on  East  Camp,  increased  greatly  in  value  be- 
cause of  the  proximity  of  settlements.  On  October  31, 
1712,  Governor  Hunter  wrote  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in 
London  saying  that,  his  fortune  and  credit  being  ex- 
hausted, his  appeals  for  repayment  not  having  been  hon- 
ored by  them,  he  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  work  of 
manufacturing  naval  stores  on  the  Hudson ;  hoping  the 
enterprise  would  be  but  temporarily  abandoned,  he  had 
directed  his  overseer  to  announce  to  the  laborers  that  they 
must  keep  in  readiness  to  return  to  their  work.  Several 
hundred  Palatines,  he  states,  had  made  their  way  to  Scho- 
harie, a  movement  that  had  been  impossible  for  him  to 
prevent ;  ^  indeed,  he  saw  therein  an  advantage,  the  protec- 
tion of  the  frontier  aofainst  the  French  and  Indians.  He 
speaks  hopefully  of  the  manufacture  of  tar  and  pitch,  and 
continues  to  write  in  this  spirit  for  three  years  longer.  In 
1715  the  Lords  of  Trade  seemed  once  more  willing  to  re- 
new the  work,  but  they  finally  concluded  that  it  was  too 
late,  and  when  the  governor  himself  in  1716  made  the 
confession  that  the  scheme,  which  at  first  seemed  so  ad- 
vantageous, had  been  a  failure,  it  was  dropped  altogether 
in  London. 

The  consternation  wrought  in  East  Camj),  when,  in 
September,  1712,  John  Cast  suddenly  announced  to  the 
settlers  that  the  enterprise  was  to  be  abandoned,  is  dif- 
ficult to  realize  fully.  Winter  was  near,  with  absolutely  no 
provision  made  for  the  colonists.  They  were  to  shift  for 
themselves,  as  best  they  could,  and  not  to  look  for  assist- 
ance. At  the  same  time  they  were  reminded  of  their 
obligations,  warned  to  remain  in  the  province  or  even  in 
the  settlement,  to  be  within  call  for  the  renewal  of  the 

*  He  had  forbidden  it.  See  following  pages. 


THE   PALATINE  IMMIGEATION  89 

manufacturing-  scheme.  In  their  distress  the  hope  that  had 
almost  been  abandoned,  that  of  reaching  the  promised 
land,  Schoharie,  loomed  up  brightly  before  their  mental 
vision.  They  took  counsel  and  decided  to  send  a  group  of 
their  leaders  to  the  Indians,  asking  their  permission  to 
settle  in  the  Schoharie  region.  Johann  Conrad  Weiser  and 
Captain  Kneiskern  were  among  those  who  beat  their  path 
from  Schenectady  through  the  woods  to  Schoharie  in 
execution  of  the  plan.  They  were  well  received,  and  their 
request  was  granted.  They  were  told  that  no  one  should 
hinder  them  from  settling  there,  and  that  the  Indians 
would  help  them  in  proportion  to  their  means.  Accord- 
ingly a  fifteen-mile  trail  was  cut  through  the  woods,  and 
about  a  dozen  families  were  sent  in  advance  to  Schoharie. 
Upon  their  arrival  a  message  from  the  governor  overtook 
them,  forbidding  their  settlement  in  Schoharie,  and  de- 
claring that  any  refusing  to  obey  should  be  treated  as 
rebels.  But  after  some  deliberation  the  Palatines  deter- 
mined to  remain,  starvation  seeming  the  other  alternative. 
In  March,  1713,  the  rest  of  the  Palatines  who  had  de- 
cided to  migrate  appeared  in  Schoharie.  The  snow  lay 
three  feet  deep,  the  travelers  struggled  against  hunger  and 
cold,  but  two  weeks'  hardship  brought  them  to  the  land 
of  promise.  Some  citizens  of  Albany  tried  to  anticipate 
their  purchase  of  the  land,  but  the  Palatines  received  the 
preference  at  the  hands  of  the  Indians,  who  sold  them 
what  they  wished  for  the  equivalent  of  three  hundred  dol- 
lars. The  privations  of  the  newcomers  during  the  winter 
were  intense,  and,  had  it  not  been  for  the  friendly  aid  of 
the  Indians,  most  of  them  would  probably  not  have  sur- 
vived. A  graphic  account  of  their  sufferings  is  given  in 
the  journal  of  Conrad  Weiser,  son  of  Johann  Conrad,  in 
which  due  acknowledgment  is  made  of  the  services  of  the 


90  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Indians,  who  "  showed  the  settlers  where  to  find  edible 
roots."  "  Many  of  our  feasts  were  of  wild  potatoes  and 
ground  beans."  ^  In  the  spring  they  "  broke  ground 
enough  to  plant  corn  for  the  use  of  the  next  year.  But 
this  year  our  hunger  was  hardly  endurable."  In  March, 
1713,  "  did  the  remainder  of  the  people  (tho'  treated  by 
the  Governor  as  Pharaoh  treated  the  Israelites)  proceed 
on  their  journey,  and  by  God's  assistance  travel'd  in  a 
fortnight  with  sledges  thro'  the  snow,  —  Avhich  there 
covered  the  ground  above  three  foot  deep, —  cold  and 
hunger,  Joyn'd  their  friends  and  countrymen  in  the 
promised  land  of  Schoharie." 

The  majority  of  the  Palatines  remained  at  or  near  the 
orio'inal  settlements  on  the  Hudson,  and  when  left  to  their 
own  resources  began  to  thrive.  About  thirty  families  on 
the  Manor,  for  instance,  moved  a  few  miles  to  the  south- 
ward, and  settled  on  Beekman's  land.  Henry  Beekman 
sold  them  lands  in  fee-simple,  wdiich  Livingston  appar- 
ently would  not  do,  and  the  town  of  Rhinebeck  was 
founded.  It  was  originally  spelled  "  Rheinbeek  "  in  honor 
of  their  home  on  the  Rhine  and  Beekman  (Beek),  their 
generous  patron. 

The  original  settlement  of  six  thousand  acres  on  Living- 
ston Manor  also  went  into  the  hands  of  Palatines,  but  not 
earlier  than  1724.  Three  of  them,  Scherb,  Hagedorn,  and 
Schumacher,  in  that  year  asked  Governor  Burnet,  Hunter's 
successor,  for  a  title  to  their  lands  for  themselves  and 
their  people.  Sixty-three  of  the  famihes  were  prepared  to 
remain,  ten  ready  to  leave,  as  reported  by  Surveyor  Golden. 
The  patent  was  signed  by  the  governor  in  1725,  allow- 

»  Quotations  from  the  Journal  of  Conrad  Weiser.  This  diary  has  been 
edited  by  D.  I.  Rnpp,  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ii,  pp.  182  ff.,etc.  Cf.  also  : 
The  Life  of  Conrad  Weiser,  Pioneer,  Patriot  and  Patron  of  Two  Races,  by 
C.  Z.  Weiser.  2d  ed.,  Reading,  1899. 


THE  PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  91 

inor  the  above-mentioned  men  with  Heiner  and  Kollman 
to  act  as  trustees  in  distributing  the  land.  Forty  acres 
were  left  for  a  church/ 

The  two  German  ministers,  Joshua  Kocherthal  and 
Johann  Friedrich  Hager,  on  request  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  near  the  close  of  Hunter's  term,  made  a  census  of  A 
the  Palatines  in  New  York.  They  reported  the  following 
statistics  for  1718  in  the  province  of  New  York  :  On  the 
east  side  of  the  river  (in  the  district  now  known  as  Ger- 
mantown),  including  Rhinebeck,  499  persons,  126  fami- 
lies; on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  including  Kingsto(w)n, 
Esopus,  West  Camp,  etc.,  272  persons,  68  families;  New 
York  City,  150  persons,  30  families ;  Schoharie,  680  per- 
sons, 170  families ;  total,  1601  persons,  394  families. 
Curiously  enough  Kocherthal  and  Jager  say  they  have 
not  included  widows  and  orphans,  leaving  an  error  in  their 
notation  of  perhaps  several  hundred  persons.  According  to 
this  table  there  were  four  persons  to  a  family.  This  is  a  very 
low  averasre  for  frontier  conditions,  that  commonlv  favor 
the  growth  of  families.  The  original  number  of  Palatines 
landed  at  Nutten  Island  being  about  2500,  the  natural 
increase  by  1718  ought  certainly  to  have  overcome  the 
death-rate,  which  is  nowhere  recorded  as  having  been 
large,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  sojourn  on  Nutten 
Island.^    Kapp  estimates  that  there  must  have  been  as 

'  The  following  names,  besides  those  mentioned,  are  found  among  them: 
Stoppelbein,  Lauer  (changed  to  Lawyer),  Schenk,  Hann,  Kiszler,  Schmid, 
Lauffmann,  Mann,  Salbach,  Dietrich,  Mixhler,  Ranch,  Hanbach,  Buck, 
Winder,  Schenkel,  Schauz,  Schoffler,  Klein,  Bartels.  Among  those  that 
would  not  remain  were  :  Schmidt,  Schneider,  Hausser,  Weruershofer,  Wist, 
and  Dirk.  Cf.  Kapp,  p.  115. 

^  The  mortality  there  was  250,  as  we  know  from  the  petition  in  Septem- 
ber, 1711,  of  an  undertaker  who  prayed  for  payment  for  250  coffins  supplied 
to  the  Palatines.  This  number,  250,  was  already  deducted  in  the  estimate 
of  2227,  on  p.  83. 


92  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

many  as  two  thousand  to  twenty-five  hundred  Pala- 
tines in  New  York  State  in  1718.  Scheff,  who,  with 
Weiser,  was  sent  to  London  as  an  envoy  of  the  Palatines 
in  defense  of  their  rights,  in  his  separate  petition  to  the 
Board  of  Trade  estimated  that  there  were  at  that  time 
(1718-20)  about  three  thousand  Palatines  in  the  state  of 
New  York.  He  gives  the  number  of  Palatines  in  Scho- 
harie as  one  hundred  and  sixty  families  or  one  thousand 
souls,  making  an  average  of  over  six  persons  to  a  family, 
contradicting  Kocherthal's  estimate  of  four  to  a  family. 
Scheff  was  pleading  a  case,  while  Kocherthal  no  doubt 
shared  the  experience  of  all  early  census-takers  in  getting 
too  low  an  estimate.  The  truth  lies  somewhere  between, 
i.  e.,  for  the  total  number,  somewhere  between  three 
thousand  and  eighteen  hundred,  plus  widows  and  orphans, 
i.  e.,  close  up  to  twenty-five  hundred,  which  is  Kapp's 
highest  figure.^ 

From  the  middle  of  the  twenties  the  Germans  main- 
tained a  sure  footing  south  of  Germantown  (Columbia 
County)  and  Clermont,  and  settled  also  the  northern  part 
of  the  present  county  of  Dutchess.  Germantown  and 
Rhinebeck  ^  became  points  of  attraction  for  German  im- 
migration and  the  stopping-place  for  those  who  desired 
to  go  either  north  or  west  in  the  province.  Intimate  ties 
of  both  blood  and  religion  existed  between  these  settlers 
and  those  on  the  Schoharie  and  Mohawk.  Migrations 
were  frequent,  as  for  instance  in  1760,  when  a  number  of 

1  Kapp,  pp.  114,  115. 

^  Among  the  first  settlers  of  Rhinebeck  were  :  Hahner,  Schufeld, 
Hagedorn,  Wiederwachs,  Staats,  Berner,  and  Elsasser.  Some  of  the  names 
in  Germantown  were  Coon  (Kuhn),  Coons  (Kuntz),  Crysler  (Kreisler), 
Salbagh  (Salbach),  Kleyne  or  Clyne  (Klein),  Schutts  (Schutz),  Shoemaker 
(Schumacher),  Snyder  (Schneider),  Smith  (Schmidt),  Freats  (Fritz),  Shu- 
felt  (Schufeld),  Meghley  (Michle),  Younghance  (Junghans),  Wagenaer 
(Wagener).  See  Kapp,  pp.  115,  116. 


THE  PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  93 

inhabitants  of  Rhinebeck  settled  in  the  Schoharie  Valley 
and  founded  New  Rhinebeck. 

The  original  site  of  the  Schoharie  settlement  was  on 
the  Little  Schoharie,  beginning  somewhat  south  of  the 
present  town  of  Middleburg,  and  extending  northward  to 
the  entry  of  Fox  Creek  and  the  Cobleskill  into  the  main 
Schoharie  River,  an  area  of  about  two  thousand  acres. 
Seven  villages  were  founded  on  both  sides  of  the  Schoharie 
River,  and  named  after  the  leaders  of  the  colonists.  Weis- 
ersdorf  was  the  southernmost  village,  located  where  now 
is  Middleburg.  Two  miles  to  the  north  was  Hartmanns- 
dorf,  named  after  Hartmann  Windecker,  soon  to  become 
the  largest  of  all  the  villages,  with  sixty-five  houses,  and 
noted  for  its  fruit  trees,  and  particularly  its  apple  trees, 
which,  as  early  as  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, became  a  staple  product.  Then  came  Brunnendorf, 
named  after  its  springs,  and  a  thousand  paces  to  the  north, 
Schmidtsdorf,  of  obvious  derivation,  the  smallest  of  the 
villages.  Fuchsdorf,  at  the  mouth  of  Fox  Creek,  was 
named  after  Wilhelm  Fuchs,  who  established  the  first 
mill.  Two  miles  to  the  north  was  Gerlachsdorf,  and  beyond 
that  Kneiskerndorf,  on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  opposite 
the  mouth  of  the  Cobleskill,  named  respectively  after 
Gerlach  and  Captain  Kneiskern. 

The  difficulties  encountered  in  the  besrinninof  of  the  ^ 
settlement  were  increased  by  the  want  of  cattle  and  agri-  '^^ 
cultural  implements.*  For  salt  it  was  necessary  to  journey 
nineteen  miles,  to  Schenectady.  The  first  crop  of  grain, 
however,  that  sprang  from  the  soil  surprised  the  colonists 
with  its  richness  and  quality,  and  strengthened  them  in 
their  determination  not  to  give  up  their  new  homes,  what- 

»  Tliey  could  not  take  along  those  they  had  used  at  East  Camp  ;  that  would 
have  been  theft. 


94  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

ever  the  commands  of  the  governor.  In  general  appear- 
ance the  country  reminded  them  of  then*  native  land 
between  the  Hardt  and  Taunus  mountain  ranges,  with  its 
picturesque  valleys  and  hills  rising  in  moderation.  In  their 
first  year,  when  Lambert  Sternberg  bought  the  first  bushel 
of  wheat  in  Schenectady  and  brought  it  on  his  back  to 
Schoharie,  he  little  thought  that  forty  years  thereafter 
Schoharie  would  annually  send  thirty-six  thousand  bushels 
of  wheat  to  Schenectady.  In  the  earliest  days  fifteen  to 
twenty  Palatines  would  be  obliged  for  safety  to  journey 
together  on  their  long  trip  to  Schenectady,  there  to  have 
their  sacks  of  strain  g-round  in  the  mill.  Wilhelm  Fuchs 
soon  shortened  the  distance  by  setting  up  his  mill  on  Fox 
Creek.  In  Weisersdorf  nine  inhabitants  joined  in  the  pur- 
chase of  their  first  horse,  using  it  in  common,  by  taking 
turns.  When,  ten  years  later,  some  of  them  migrated  to 
Pennsylvania,  they  drove  large  herds  of  cattle  and  horses 
before  them.  After  the  first  necessities  were  provided, 
many  of  the  men  in  the  colony  plied  their  respective  trades 
and  thus  turned  an  additional  honest  penny.  This  also 
made  their  progress  more  rapid. 

The  relations  of  the  Palatines  with  the  Indians  of  the 
Mohawk  tribes  were  very  friendly,  to  such  a  degree  that 
Governor  Hunter  grew  suspicious,  as  will  presently  appear. 
Conrad  Weiser,  by  consent  of  his  father,  Joliann  Conrad, 
lived  with  the  Mohawk  Indians,^  when  a  bov.  He  learned 
their  language  and  their  customs,  and  on  his  return  to  the 
white  settlements  became  ever  after  the  mediator  between 
the  two  races.  An  instance  of  the  cordial  relations  exist- 
ing between  them  is  furnished  by  one  of  the  festivals  in 

*  The  Mohawk  chief,  Quagnant,  took  a  special  liking  to  Conrad,  then 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  proposed  to  take  him  to  his  own  country  and  teach 
him  the  Indian  language. 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  95 

the  early  days,  tlie  crowning  feature  of  which  was  a  series 
of  athletic  sports.  The  chief  event  was  a  mile  race  between 
the  fleetest  of  the  Indian  youths  and  Conrad  Weiser.  The 
speed  of  the  two  contestants  was  about  equal  for  most  of 
the  distance,  and  they  ran  neck  and  neck  near  the  finish, 
when  Conrad  Weiser,  by  accident  or  design,  collided  with 
his  rival,  causing  his  fall,  and  in  the  next  moment  reached 
the  mark  before  his  adversary  could  recover.  The  Indians, 
who  had  watched  the  race  with  breathless  interest,  com- 
plained vehemently  of  unfair  treatment,  when  Conrad 
Weiser,  going  quickly  from  chief  to  chief,  explained  that 
his  act  was  unintentional,  and  that  he  certainly  was  not 
deserving  of  the  prize  of  handsome  deerskins,  that  were 
to  go  to  the  victor.  This  pleased  the  Indians  so  much 
that  they,  in  turn,  were  not  to  be  outdone  as  sportsmen, 
and  insisted  on  Weiser's  taking  the  prize,  the  festival 
winding  up  in  peace  and  good  will,  though  at  one  time 
a  dangerous  antagonism  was  threatened. 

Very  different  were  the  relations  of  the  Palatines  with 
the  original  Dutch  settlers,  called  frequently  Low  Dutch, 
to  distinguish  them  from  the  High  Dutch,  or  Germans. 
Being  older  settlers  and  therefore  more  well-to-do,  they 
looked  down  upon  the  poor  Palatines,  or  tried  to  worst 
them  when  business  affairs  brought  them  in  contact.  This 
feeling,  continuing  until  the  Revolutionary  War,  was  not 
due  to  national  hatred,  the  two  types  being  closely  related 
by  blood  and  geographical  location  in  their  European 
homes,  but  rather  to  class  prejudice  existing  between  rich 
and  poor,  patrician  and  plebeian,  and  subsequently  between 
Tory  and  Patriot.  Violent  outbreaks  occurred  between 
them  at  times,  as  when,  in  the  year  1714,  Adam  Vroo- 
man,  a  well-to-do  Dutch  farmer  of  Schenectady,  sent  his 
son  Peter  to  settle  in  the  neighborhood  of  Weisersdorf. 


96  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

The  estate  contained  about  fourteen  hundred  acres,  and 
prevented  the  Germans  from  spreading  out  westward  be- 
yond the  Schoharie.  If  young  Vrooman's  statements  can 
be  relied  upon,  Palatines  drove  their  horses  over  his  fields 
at  night,  tore  down  his  buildings,  and  were  abusive  with 
"  rebellious  speeches."  Johann  Conrad  Weiser  was  accused 
of  being  the  ringleader  in  all  disturbances,  and  his  son  of 
"  telling  the  Indians  all  sorts  of  lies." 

The  resentment  against  the  Weisers  was  shared  by  the 
governor  and  all  aristocrats,  but  they  were  afraid  to  seize 
or  arrest  the  Palatine  leader,  the  champion  of  the  rights 
and  independence  of  the  German  colonists.  The  prosperity 
of  the  Schoharie  settlements  aroused  the  cupidity  of  the 
earlier  settlers,  who  now  became  actively  engaged  in  re- 
viving Governor  Hunter's  grudge  against  the  Palatines. 
Overstepping  his  prerogatives,  the  governor  granted  to 
the  Seven  Partners  ^  of  Albany  at  a  very  moderate  selling- 
price  ^  the  identical  territory,  between  the  Little  Schoharie 
and  the  Cobleskill,  on  which  the  Palatines  had  squatted. 
He  might  have  bestowed  upon  his  friends  some  of  the 
equally  valuable  lands  on  the  Mohawk,  but  his  purpose 
was  evidently  to  drive  the  Palatines  out  of  the  fertile 
valley  of  the  Schoharie,  choosing  to  forget  th§  original 
instructions  of  Queen  Anne,  in  accordance  with  which  he 
was  to  engage  the  Palatines  in  the  business  of  preparing 
pitch  and  tar,  but  also  to  have  special  concern  for  "the 
comfort  and  advantage  of  the  Palatines."  It  was  not  so 
easy  a  matter  for  the  Seven  Partners  to  gain  actual  pos- 
session of  the  territory  granted  them.  The  Palatines  in- 

*  The  grant  was  dated,  Fort  George,  November  3,  1714,  and  made  to 
Meyndert  Schuyler,  Peter  van  Brugh,  Robert  Livingston,  Jr.,  John  Schuyler, 
George  Clark,  Dr.  Staats,  and  Rip  van  Dam.  Kapp,  p.  127;  Cobb,  p.  231. 

'  Ten  thousand  acres  for  fourteen  hundred  pistoles.  See  Kapp,  p.  231. 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  97 

sisted  on  their  riglit  of  possession  by  purchase  from  the 
Indians,  and  by  special  assignment  of  Queen  Anne.   Gov- 
ernor Hunter's  only  excuse  could  be  that  so  long  as  the 
Palatines  had  not  produced  ship  stores  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity/ he  would  not  carry  out  the  other  part  of  the  con- 
tract, in  virtue  of  which  the  Palatines  as  colonists  were  en- 
titled to  grants  of  land  at  the  rate  of  forty  acres  per  head. 
The  Seven  Partners  soon  sent  an  agent.  Bayard,  to  ac- 
quaint the  German  settlers  with  the  new  order  of  things, 
and  graciously  to  offer  them  the  lands  they  had  cultivated, 
at  a  small  rental.  Bayard  was  lodged  in  Schmidtsdorf, 
located  centrally  among  the  seven  villages,  and  when  his 
purpose  became  known,  men,  women,  and  children,  armed 
with  clubs,  sickles,  knives,  and  guns  appeared  before  the 
house  where  the  agent  was  stopping.   Bayard  owed  his 
life  to  his  host,  Schmidt,  who   restrained  the  angered 
people  long  enough  to  allow  him  to  escape.  The  Seven 
Partners  then  sent  the  sheriff  of  Albany,  named  Adams, 
to  renew  the  offers  and  drive  from  the  land  those  unwill- 
ing  to  accept  their  terms,  particularly  Johann  Conrad 
Weiser.  According  to  the  sheriff's    own  account,  as  he 
tried  to  seize  one  of  the  refractory  colonists,  he  was  struck 
down,  dragged  through  all  the  dirty  pools  of  the  streets 
by  the  women  of  the  village,  then  set  upon  a  fence-rail 
and  carried  about  for  an  hour.  He  lost  an  eye  and  had 
two  of  his  ribs  broken,  but  managed,  four  days  after,  to 
creep  or  crawl  back  to  Albany.  After  that  either  side 
waited,  and  the  Schoharie  people,  on  their  part,  were  very 
cautious  about  appearing  in  Albany.  In  time  they  grew 
bolder,  and  a  number  of  young  men,  including  the  son  of 
Weiser,  ventured  to  go  to  Albany  to  get  salt.  They  were 

'  The  failure  of  the  enterprise,  however,  released  the  Palatines  from  their 
obligations. 


98  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

captured  and  put  into  prison,  for  how  long  we  do  not 
know,  but  since  no  legitimate  charges  could  be  brought 
against  them,  they  had  to  be  set  free. 

The  Seven  Partners,  being  unable  to  dislodge  the  Pal- 
atines, next  applied  to  the  governor.  In  1717  he  sum- 
moned three  men  from  each  village  to  appear  in  Albany, 
including  Johann  Conrad  Weiser.  When  they  were  as- 
sembled, Governor  Hunter,  in  a  passion  declaring  that  he 
would  have  Weiser  hanged,  put  three  questions  to  the 
Palatines  whom  he  had  summoned  :  — 

(1)  Why  had  they  gone  to  Schoharie  without  his  per- 
mission ? 

(2)  Why  would  they  not  make  any  compromise  with 
the  gentlemen  of  Albany  ? 

(3)  Why  had  they  so  much  to  do  with  the  Indians  ? 
These  questions  the  deputies  answered  as  follows :  — 
Firstly,  they  had  been  compelled  by  necessity  to  shift 

for  themselves,  the  governor  having  told  them  to  do  so 
when  the  manufacture  of  tar  was  discontinued.  They  were 
compelled  to  go  somewhere  and  provide  against  starva- 
tion, hoping  to  gain  later  the  approval  of  the  king  and 
governor.  When  the  speaker,  probably  Weiser,  mentioned 
the  king.  Hunter  grew  angry,  and  Livingston  added, 
"  Here  is  your  king,"  pointing  to  the  governor. 

To  the  second  question  the  deputies  answered  that  they 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  gentlemen  of  Albany ;  that 
the  Indians  had  presented  the  land  to  the  crown  for  the 
good  of  the  Palatines ;  that  they  had  since  that  time  bought 
the  land  from  the  Indians ;  that  the  king  had  not  given 
it  to  the  Seven  Partners ;  and  that  if  they  must  serve  any 
one,  they  would  serve  the  king  and  no  private  person. 

In  answer  to  the  third  question  they  said  that  if  they 
did  not  live  on  good  terms  with  the  Indians,  they  would 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  99 

constantly  be  exposed  to  hostile  attacks  of  both  the  Indians 
and  the  French. 

Hunter  commanded  them  either  to  agree  with  the 
Albany  gentlemen  or  to  leave  the  valley,  and  forbade 
them  to  plow  and  sow  the  ground  until  they  had  come  to 
an  agreement.  The  deputies  returned  with  these  behests, 
none  of  which  were  obeyed.  The  following  winter  the 
people  sent  three  men  to  New  York,  asking  the  governor's 
permission  to  cultivate  their  land.  Hunter  did  not  change 
his  position,  nor  did  the  Palatines  theirs,  on  the  return  of 
the  delegates.  As  Weiser  says  in  his  subsequent  account : 
"  They  were  forced  for  their  own  preservation  to  transgress 
these  orders,  and  sowed  some  small  corn  and  fruits,  or  else 
they  must  have  starved."  In  the  spring  of  1718  the  Pala- 
tines concluded  that  they  must  appeal  to  a  higher  power, 
and  appointed  three  of  their  best  men  to  go  to  London 
and  lay  their  grievances  before  the  king. 

Their  envoys  were  Johann  Conrad  Weiser,  SchefF,  and 
Wallrath.  They  secretly  boarded  a  ship  in  Philadelphia, 
but  while  at  sea  misfortune  overtook  them,  they  fell 
into  the  hands  of  pirates,  and  were  robbed  of  all  their 
possessions.  Weiser  was  tied  to  the  mast  three  times  and 
pitifully  beaten,  to  yield  up  more  money,  though  he  had 
given  his  last.  The  ship  was  forced  to  land  at  Boston, 
in  order  to  purchase  supplies  for  the  remaining  passage, 
and  when  it  arrived  in  London,  the  German  envoys  were 
bereft  of  all  their  means.  Friendless  and  poor  in  a  for- 
eign city,  they  were  compelled  to  contract  debts,  in  con- 
sequence of  which  Weiser  and  Scheff  were  put  into  the 
debtor's  prison,  while  Wallrath  returned  homeward,  dying 
on  the  way.  The  others  remained  in  prison  almost  a  year, 
until  a  check  of  seventy  pounds  from  their  friends  in  Scho- 
harie released  them.  Each  then  presented  a  petition  inde- 


100  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

peiidently,  rehearsing  their  history  and  numerous  griev- 
ances, from  the  very  beginning,  their  arrival  at  New  York, 
to  the  attempted  expulsion  from  Schoharie,  their  land  of 
promise,  given  them  by  the  crown,  that  had  received  it 
from  the  Indians.  The  documents  showed  particular 
strength  in  argumentation,  and  proved  that  their  authors 
were  by  no  means  ignorant  men  such  as  the  Palatines  are 
frequently  set  down  for,  but  on  the  contrary  men  of  ability, 
particularly  Weiser,  and  both  of  a  higher  intellectual  type 
than  commonly  found  on  the  frontier.  Although  they  were 
supported  in  their  plea  by  both  pastors  of  the  Royal  Ger- 
man Chapel,  Bohm  and  Robert,  they  did  not  get  a  satisfac- 
tory hearing.  Governor  Hunter,  then  in  England,  after 
his  recall  from  office,  being  questioned  as  a  witness,  gave 
some  damaging  accounts  of  the  Palatines,  saying  among 
other  things  that  they  had  "  settled  against  his  will  on 
other  people's  lands."  He  was  thus  begging  the  very  point 
at  issue,  but  his  testimony  weighed  heavily  with  the  Lords 
of  Trade,  and  the  result  was  that  Hunter's  grant  of  the 
lands  to  the  Seven  Partners  of  Albany  remained  intact. 

SchefE  left  earlier  than  Weiser,  having  disagreed  with 
him  on  the  point  of  the  advisability  of  threatening  to 
leave  the  colony  of  New  York,  if  their  rights  were  not  main- 
tained. Such  a  step,  Scheff  thought,  transcended  the  terms 
of  their  commission.  Weiser  remained  at  least  until  1722, 
hoping  against  hope,  determined  to  make  the  right  of  the 
Palatines  victorious,  but  in  1723  he  was  again  at  home  in 
Schoharie.  There  the  people  were  no  longer  in  agreement, 
but  were  discussing  *  the  adoption  of  one  of  three  separate 
courses :  first,  remaining  in  Schoharie  and  arriving  at  an 

'  It  is  said  also,  that  a  portion  of  the  j^onnger  element  of  the  Palatines 
were  persuaded  or  bribed  by  the  Partners  of  Albany  to  subscribe  to  a  peti- 
tion undermining  the  good  work  of  Weiser  and  Scheflf. 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  101 

agreement  with  the  Albany  proprietors ;  second,  settling 
in  the  Mohawk  Valley  on  land  assigned  them  by  the  new 
governor,  Burnet ;  and  third,  migrating  to  the  neighbor- 
ing colony  of  Pennsylvania. 

Governor  Burnet  treated  the  Palatines  with  more  tact 
than  his  predecessor.  He  reasoned  with  them,  and  appar- 
ently persuaded  most  of  them  that  it  was  to  their  advant- 
age to  yield.  He  offered  them  equally  good  lands  on  the 
Mohawk,  a  proposition  the  acceptance  of  which  he  knew 
would  also  result  in  a  gain  for  the  province,  extending  the 
frontier  forty  miles  westward  and  thereby  protecting  the 
older  settlements.  The  petition  of  Weiser,  after  all,  prob- 
ably had  had  a  good  effect,  for  now  the  home  government 
was  commanding  Burnet  to  take  action  in  behalf  of  the 
Palatines.  The  governor  had  some  trouble  in  getting  the 
squatters  to  believe  that  he  was  fair-minded,  in  urging 
them  to  accept  his  propositions.  His  impression  of  the 
Palatines  he  gave  in  the  words,  "  a  laborious  and  honest, 
but  headstrong  ignorant  people."  At  one  time  he  speaks 
of  them  as  ungrateful,  but  governing  he  found  a  thank- 
less task  and  the  criticism  does  not  apply  any  more  to  the 
Palatines  as  a  people  than  to  others.  The  latter  had  been 
treated  very  harshly,  and  a  forced  migration,  even  under 
favorable  conditions,  was  after  all  an  injustice  to  them. 

About  three  hundred  persons  remained  in  Schoharie, 
making  an  agreement  with  the  new  landlords,  on  easy 
terms.^  They  were  subsequently  joined  by  additional 
settlers  from  Germantown  and  Rhinebeck,  so  that  at  the 
time  of  the  Revolution  the  whole  of  the  Schoharie  country 
was  settled.  The  German  farms  extended  twenty-five  or 
thirty  miles  beyond  the  original  seven  villages.  The  in- 

'  Conrad  Weiser  says,  however,  the  best  lands  were  not  available  for  the 
Palatines. 


102  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

dustrious  and  thrifty  settlers  made  a  garden  of  the  coun- 
try, and  peace  and  plenty  entered  their  lives.  They  were 
active  in  the  frontier  struggles  and  in  the  war  of  the  Re- 
volution, but  after  that  led  quiet  lives,  leaving  no  particu- 
lar mark  upon  the  history  of  the  state,  yet  harboring 
latent  forces,  which  occasionally  came  to  the  surface,  as 
in  the  career  of  William  C.  Bouck,  prominent  in  politics 
through  his  native  good  sense  and  honesty,  and  serving 
as  governor  of  the  state  of  New  York  from  1843  to 
1845. 

The  leader  of  the  Palatines  who  settled  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley  was  Gerlach.  The  settlements  were  made  on  either 
side  of  the  Mohawk  in  the  present  counties  of  Montgom- 
ery, Herkimer,  and  beyond.  Fort  Hunter  was  the  eastern- 
most point,  and  fifty  miles  west,  at  Frankfort,  was  the 
western  limit.  The  whole  distance  between  Frankfort  and 
Schenectady  is  seventy  English  miles,  of  which  area  the 
Germans  settled  more  than  two  thirds.  In  this  location 
they  protected  the  frontier  of  New  York  throughout  the 
French  and  Indian  and  the  Revolutionary  wars,  the  Scho- 
harie Germans  forming  the  other  side  of  the  wedge  run- 
ning into  the  western  territory  of  New  York.  The  district 
soon  became  the  granary  in  time  of  peace  and  war,  and 
the  labors  of  Governor  Burnet  were  well  rewarded.  In 
number  the  Palatine  settlers  of  the  Mohawk  Valley, 
about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  amounted  to 
from  twenty-five  hundred  to  three  thousand,  inhabiting 
about  five  hundred  houses.  Indian  traders  advanced  as 
far  as  Oswego  and  Niagara,  which  marked  the  borders  also 
of  the  territory  of  the  Six  Nations.  Even  to-day  the  Mo- 
hawk Valley  is  Palatine  territory,  indexed  with  German 
names,  as  Palatine,  Palatine  Bridge,  Mannheim,  Oppen- 
heim,  Newkirk,  etc.  The  level  meadows  extending  along 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  103 

the  south  side  of  the  Mohawk,  unsurpassed  in  cultivation 
and  fertility,  are  still  known  as  the  German  Flats.  On 
the  opposite  side  of  the  Mohawk  lies  the  town  bearing  the 
name  of  General  Herkimer  (or  Herkheimer),  the  hero  of 
the  battle  of  Oriskany,  described  in  the  chapter  below 
on  the  Revolutionary  War.^ 

Not  only  Gerlach,  who  led  his  hosts  to  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  but  another  of  the  seven  chiefs  would  not  listen 
to  the  compromise  of  the  Albany  landlords.  Johann  Con- 
rad Weiser  chose  rather  to  leave  the  lands  he  and  his 
people  had  cultivated  for  twelve  years  than  suffer  injust- 
ice. For  some  time  past  a  number  of  the  Palatines  at 
Schoharie  had  looked  in  the  direction  of  Pennsylvania  for 
settlement,  receiving  encouragement  from  Governor  Keith, 
who  promised  them  freedom  and  justice.  A  petition  had 
been  addressed  to  him  from  fifteen  heads  of  Palatine  fami- 
lies, that  recited  their  experiences  in  New  York,  spoke 
of  the  generous  treatment  always  shown  their  countrymen 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  begged  that  lands  might  be  set  aside 
for  them  on  the  Tulpehocken,  which  they  would  be  ready 
and  able  to  purchase.  This  petition  was  acted  upon  favor- 
ably, and  an  immigration  to  Pennsylvania  resulted  on  in- 
vitation of  Governor  Keith.  To  carry  out  the  plan,  steps 
were  taken  in  the  assembly  to  satisfy  the  claims  of  Chief 
Sassouan,  who  protested  against  the  occupation  of  the 
Tulpehocken  district.  The  Indians  were  given  compensa- 
tion satisfactory  to  them,  and  the  relations  between  the 
Palatines  and  aborigines  became  as  cordial  in  Pennsylvania 
as  they  had  been  in  Schoharie. 

The  migration  was  made  in  two  bodies,  the  first  starting 
in  the  spring  of  1723,  and  the  second  in  1728.  About 
sixty  families,  or  three  hundred  persons,  left  Schoharie. 

1  Chapter  xi,  pp.  307-314. 


104  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

This  time  they  had  a  large  train  of  cattle,  abundant  sup- 
plies, and  money  to  make  a  good  beginning.  They  as- 
cended the  Schoharie,  and  under  the  conduct  of  an  Indian 
guide  crossed  the  mountains  south westwardly  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Susquehanna.  They  constructed  canoes  and 
followed  the  Susquehanna  River  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Swatara.  Ascending  the  river,  they  reached  the  undulat- 
ing country  that  lies  between  the  sources  of  the  Swatara 
and  Tulpehocken,  and  made  it  the  site  of  their  jDermanent 
settlement.  Heidelberg  was  the  name  given  to  their  first 
town.  Word  was  sent  back  to  Schoharie  of  the  success  of 
the  expedition  and  settlement,  and  five  years  later  came 
Conrad  Weiser,  with  his  people,  who  had  been  hoping  in 
vain  that  by  some  chance  they  might  still  get  a  clear  title 
to  their  possessions.  The  Weisers  founded  the  settlement 
of  Womelsdorf,  which  rapidly  gained  in  importance.  Con- 
rad Weiser,  the  younger,  was  soon  recognized  as  the  head 
of  the  new  German  settlements  in  Berks  County,  his 
public  service  as  a  soldier  and  mediator  in  Indian  affairs 
making  his  name  respected  throughout  the  land.  The 
elder  Weiser  lived  with  his  son  almost  a  score  of  years 
longer,  seeing  increase  and  prosperity  all  about  him,  and 
peace  at  last.  He  had  been  one  of  the  most  stubborn 
fighters  for  justice  and  independence  in  all  colonial  his- 
tory, what  with  the  determined  stand  he  took  against 
Hunter,  and  the  defense  of  his  people's  rights  before  the 
very  throne  of  Great  Britain,  ever  undaunted  by  pov- 
erty, chastisement,  imprisonment,  and  the  law's  delay. 

The  number  of  Palatines  in  the  Tulpehocken  district 
was  very  soon  increased  by  accessions  from  Germany.  Re- 
ports of  their  kind  treatment  in  Pennsylvania  went  home 
through  letters  and  personal  messages,  with  the  result 
that  the  main  stream  of  German  immigration  now  went 


THE  PALATINE  IMMIGRATION  105 

into  Pennsylvania  and  avoided  New  York,  The  Swedish 
traveler  and  naturalist,  Peter  Kalm,  comments  upon  this 
fact,  and  says  that  even  when  immigrants  were  forced  to 
take  ships  bound  for  New  York,  "  they  were  scarce  got  on 
shore  when  they  hastened  to  Pennsylvania  in  sight  of  all 
the  inhabitants  of  New  York."  Within  twenty  years  of  the 
settlement  of  Tulpehocken,  the  Germans  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania counties  had  increased  to  nearly  fifty  thousand.  The 
colony  of  New  York  lost  inestimably  through  the  diversion 
of  this  main  current  of  immigration,  and  it  is  largely  due 
to  this  fact  that  New  York  in  colonial  times  ranked  but 
fourth  in  importance,  being  exceeded  by  Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia. 

The  name  of  probably  the  most  lasting  fame  among  the 
Palatine  settlers  of  New  York  State  is  that  of  the  printer,  y 
John  Peter  Zenger.  He  made  the  first  good  fight  in  the 
history  of  the  American  colonies  for  the  liberty  of  the 
press.  When  a  youth  of  thirteen  years  he  was  apprenticed 
to  William  Bradford,  then  the  only  printer  of  New  York. 
He  was  one  of  the  Palatine  orphan  boys,  separated  from 
the  other  colonists,  and  left  behind  in  New  York  City  ;  but 
great  was  his  fortune  to  serve  under  a  man  of  such  high 
character  as  Bradford.  The  latter  was  an  English  Quaker, 
who  had  come  over  with  William  Penn,  but  in  1685  re- 
moved to  the  colony  of  New  York.  In  1725  he  had  given 
New  York  City  its  first  newspaper,  "The  New  York 
Gazette."  With  him  Zenger  learned  the  trade  of  printing 
and  the  art  of  editing  a  newspaper.  His  rise  had  been 
speedy  from  apprentice,  to  employer,  to  partner.  In  1733 
Zenger  left  the  partnership  and  started  an  independent 
newspaper  called  the  "  New  York  Weekly  Journal." 
Bradford's  paper  was  the  organ  of  the  governor's  party, 
Zenger's  that  of  the  opposition. 


106  THE   GEEMAN  ELEMENT 

The  beginnings  of  an  epoch  of  severe  party  strife  in 
New  York  came  with  the  appointment  of  Governor  Cosby, 
who  had  been  governor  of  Minorca  and  there  made  an 
unenviable  reputation  for  avarice.  He  did  not  immediately 
come  to  New  York,  but  resided  in  London  a  year  before 
entering  upon  his  duties.  In  the  interim  Rip  Van  Dam, 
as  president  of  the  council,  conducted  the  affairs  of  the 
colony.  Cosby  claimed  that  one  half  of  the  salary  paid  to 
the  president  of  the  council  was  due  to  himself.  Van  Dam 
agreed  to  this,  but  demurred  when  Cosby  claimed  also  one 
half  the  fees  the  former  had  received.  A  lawsuit  arose  which 
divided  the  colony  into  two  camps,  popular  sympathy  nat- 
urally being  on  the  side  of  Kip  Van  Dam.  When  Cosby 
dismissed  Chief  Justice  Morris  and  set  in  his  place  a  man 
amenable  to  his  designs,  popular  discontent  rose  to  white 
heat.  The  case  naturally  was  won  by  Cosby,  but  it  was  a 
victory  dearly  bought,  savoring  of  bitter  defeat.  Brad- 
ford's "New  York  Gazette"  being  the  faithful  instrument 
of  the  government,  Zenger  thought  the  auspicious  moment 
had  arrived  for  the  founding  of  a  paper  voicing  the  senti- 
ments of  the  people.  The  "  New  York  Weekly  Journal " 
obtained  as  supporters  and  contributors  some  of  the  ablest 
men  in  the  province,  such  as  Rip  Van  Dam,  Judge  Morris, 
and  the  lawyers  Smith  and  Alexander.  Bradford's  stately 
pages  were  no  match  for  the  bold,  truth-telling,  satirical 
columns  of  Zenger. 

Now  there  appeared  in  the  "Journal"  a  number  of 
articles,  which  inveighed  against  the  high-handed  actions 
of  the  governor,  and  complained  of  his  driving  residents 
of  New  York  away  to  other  colonies.  The  following  is  a 
brief  quotation  from  the  paper :  — 

We  see  men's  deeds  destroyed,  judges  arbitrarily  displaced, 
new  courts  erected  without  the  consent  of  the  legislature,  by 


T  H  E 


1  1 

I 
t  — ' 


N'utiib.  T. 


New -York  V/eekly    JOURNAL 


Containing     the    frepjejl   Advu     ^     :    ■■a^i,    and     Domejiick. 
MU'NDAT'^^bii'y.,  1755.  * 


M  ■.  ZiKitr, 


UN  D  E  R  S  T  A  N  D  I  N  G  you  in- 
tend Ih -itly  to  pubiiih  a  Wecr.ly 
Papec,  I  recommend  to  your  difpo- 
fal  the  iiiclofed  Verfts  upon  WifJom  ; 
which  is  lo  noble  a  Theme,  that  whoever 
takes  the  Pains  feriotlfly  to  refltft  thereon, 
will  fiiid  himftlf  happijy  1oft  ja  the  bound- 
,kfs  Ocean  of  Bentfcf  and  Satisfaction  at- 
tenditig  it.  It  is  without  Difpufe  the  chief 
Voo-d  of  Mankir.d ;  the  firm  Bank  that 
conflai;tly  fecur^s  us  agoin  the  impetuous 
R-iging  of  that  turbulent  Sea  of  Paliions, 
which  inceffaiitly  dalh  againft  the  Frame 
<i£iu>r.ar,  NMtu.-e.  it  is  y  Fnrt  iirspropiia- 
W.'.,.  j:  AT.-.lf^r.f  Vict,  Folly,  and  Mii- 
:afeRtx;^agsiiuit  all  she 
\^-;^.i..  ^  I .  .i..;y.  It  is  a  Guideand  Se- 
curity to  Youth,  Health,  and  Vigour  to 
Old  Age ;  and  a  Remedy  and  Eafe  in  Sick- 
Jiefi  and  Infirmity.  It- is  Comfort  in  Ad- 
verfity,  it  is  Plenty  in  Poverty,  a'lid  acon- 
ftant  Source  of  true  Joy  and  Delight.  It  is 
infinitely  beyond  all  that  the  feigned  For- 
iH'istui  ever  could  wifh,or  C>;j^i»/'5Treafures 
purchafe  5  For  her  IVats  an  tVap  ef  PUa- 
fantmfj,  axd  ail  btr  Paths  are  Peace. 
She  iscfe.'fv  ajcefs  to  all  that  diligently 
ft.  ok  h  .  :  fafss  none  that  with  Sin- 

cerity II  ,  ler,  and  is  al wars  a  ready 
Help  in  Time  of  Need  :  Therefore  pray 
continue  to  rccimmed  the  earnefl  Purfuit 
ef  Her  to  all  Mankind  -,  and  you  will  parti- 
cularly ol''lis?e. 

^  f    PHILO-SOPHIA. 

6a  wisdom 

"i  7l^ori»u»Wifd5CT    whofe  fuprerae  Commarwi 
'    Exienij  bevor.d  iht  Boundi  of  Sea  tni  L»nd  ;. 
tr^'^Mi  t'.mf  rt«  dofl  rcwjrd  our  Pifnj, 
"TVIHi  Ple»fti-eith«!  ci.<lure,  and  rpj'idGjins. 


\ 


EutC;h  IWhitart  thousand  whe'edaftthfiu dwfU.' 
Not  with  ih?  Ht-rmit  in  his  lonciv  Ceil; 
The  fulten  Funics  of  whofe  dtiiejnnper*d  Brain, 
Mjk(  th-  dull  Wrtich  tormtr.t  himfelf  in viin  : 
Vl'hillt  ui  the  Wcr'd  alfeatillv  •iraid, 
Ke  lliuiis  the  End  for  which  Mifikiad  was  iiude. 

Not  with  the  Epicure  in  all  hiipleifurej. 
Nor  with  the  Mifrr  in  h  ■;  I>ji.k  of  Treaf.ircs, 
The  onc'«  a  SUvc  bound  fat^  inj'olden  Chains, 
Th«  other  buys  Ihort  ]o/«  withiaftiog  Paiiii 

Not  in  the  vain  Pufiilf  of  ptttial  Fair*, 
The  gaudv  Ouifidcofau  emptv  Name  i 
When  moved  b.-  Chiiicc.not  Merit  coTTjinon  P.reatii , 
Giwei  the  fiife  Shadow  fudden  Life  or  Dtatb. 

Honour,  when  meritoriouily  afligncd. 
The  noble  Afiioix  of  a  God  like  Mind. 
1?  lite.',  iiideeu  *  Ci«fl..i;  >"-.*?  ti^iii  Meavei,, 
A  ktijlif  RciK*-'-  >'"  lifcoun  Labour  fjlvta 


sttery. 


Eut  when  'tis  Fame 'a  miOa  k<-n  I 
A  ^pBl.>r   ApplaufeofVanit    , 
The  woribicfa  Idol  ought  fn  t.c  .!  hr  d; 
And  ishy  Bone  batKnavec  and  Faol<  a^r'd. 

^     Thus  ai  I'm  fearchint  with  the  feeble  Light 
Of  human  Reafon,  in  dark  error'*  Ni^ht, 
For  what  hi!  oft  efcap'i  the  curious  Eye, 
Of  ioftv  Wit,  and  deep  Pliilofophv, 
From  the  briubt  Region*  efeieriul  DiV, 
Methinks  I  fee  a  firiall  but  glorioua  Rav, 
Dart  fwifl  as  Lightning  throug  the  yteiding  Aiv. 
To  an  unfjpotted  Ereiit,  and  enter  there. 

This  is  the  Wifdom  I  fo  much  .idore  5 
Grant  me  tut  thi.s,  kind  Heaven,  I  .isk  no  more 
This  once  obtain'd,  how  happy  ihall  I  be  > 
King*  will  be  little  Men,  "compar'd  to  tee  : 
They  in  their  »wn  Dominions  only  great, 
1  Conquer  of  the  World,  my  feif  and  fate. 

ThoJarm'd,  let  Fortune  ufe  me  as  li-.t  ■*;;. 
I  fund  prepar'd  toineet  with  Good  or  111. 
If  {  am  born  for  Happincfsaad  Eafe, 
And  profp'rousG^lcs  falute  tht  fmi ling  Seat; 
Th.sPath  I'll  tread,  (the  BlelEugs  to  repay) 
Where  Virtue  calls  and  Honour  Ie..ds  the  Wa/, 

Eut  if  the  Weather  of  my  Life  prove  foul, 
Thoush  Sftorma  irife  th^t  make*  whole  Kiogdomc 
rowle. 

Yet 


ZENr,ER"S    "new    YORK    WEEKLY    JOURN.AL"' 


'^^AHY 


""''v^mylf 


'^IHOIS 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  107 

which  it  seems  to  me  trials  by  jury  are  taken  away  when  a  gov- 
ernor pleases;  men  of  known  estates  denied  their  votes  contrary 
to  the  recent  practice  of  the  best  expositor  of  any  law.  Who  is 
there  in  that  province  that  can  call  anything  his  own,  or  enjoy 
any  liberty  longer  than  those  in  the  administration  will  conde- 
scend to  let  them,  for  which  reason  I  left  it,  as  I  believe  more 
will. 

This  was  plain  speaking-,  unheard  of  in  the  colonial 
papers  up  to  that  time,  yet  it  represented  the  exercise  of  a 
newspaper's  noblest  function,  that  of  giving  free  and  fear- 
less expression  to  public  opinion. 

The  governor  left  no  stone  unturned  to  close  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  people's  party.  First  he  directed  the 
grand  jury  to  indict  Zenger  for  libel.  They  did  not  see 
any  cause  for  accusation.  The  governor  tried  the  jury 
again,  and  failed.  He  then  brought  the  matter  before  the 
colonial  assembly,  who  refused  to  order  the  burning  by 
the  hangman  of  certain  numbers  of  the  "Weekly  Journal." 
The  colonial  council  (upper  house),  under  pressure  from 
the  governor,  then  passed  an  order,  by  which  the  hang- 
man was  to  burn  publicly  certain  designated  articles,  while 
the  burgomaster  and  magistrate  of  the  city  should  wit- 
ness the  act.  The  latter  both  refused  to  obey,  and  when, 
four  days  later  (November  6,  1734),  the  sheriff  made  a 
motion  in  court  to  carry  out  the  order,  they  forbade  the 
hangman,  who  was  a  city  official,  to  act  in  accordance 
with  the  demand.  The  objectionable  numbers  of  the  news- 
papers were  then  burned  by  a  black  slave  of  the  sheriff 
in  the  presence  of  some  officers  of  the  garrison. 

Soon  after,  on  the  17th  of  November,  followed  the 
arrest  of  Zenger,  but  he  was  set  free  on  bail,  through 
the  efforts  of  his  lawyers,  James  Alexander  and  William 
Smith.  In  January,  1735,  the  grand   jury  again  found 


108  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

no  cause  for  indicting  Zenger.  The  attorney-general 
next  took  the  matter  in  hand.  The  lawyers  of  Zenger 
attacked  the  constitutionality  of  the  court  over  which 
Delancey  (successor  to  Morris)  presided,  but  this  was 
followed  by  the  latter's  disbarring  Alexander  and  Smith 
from  practice  in  New  York  for  contempt  of  court.  Thus 
Zenger  lost  his  legal  defenders,  and  his  case  seemed  hope- 
less in  the  face  of  the  criminal  procedure  instituted  against 
him,  August  14,  1735/  But  Zenger's  cause  had  become 
more  than  a  personal  contest ;  it  was  now  the  cause  of  the 
people  of  New  York  and  with  them  of  all  the  American 
colonists.  The  friends  of  Zenger  summoned  to  his  aid 
Andrew  Hamilton  of  Philadelphia,  the  most  noted  and 
respected  advocate  of  the  colonies.  He  was  a  Scotch- 
Irishman,  who  had  settled  in  the  Quaker  City  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century  and  had  come  by  his  reputation 
justly  through  his  able  and  honest  public  service. 

In  this  trial  he  admitted  at  once  that  his  client  had 
published  the  paragraph  in  question,  whereupon  the  court 
claimed  a  verdict  for  the  crown.  But  Hamilton  main- 
tained that  the  question  for  the  jury  to  decide  was  not 
whether  the  paragraph  in  question  had  been  printed  or 
not  by  Zenger,  but  whether  the  paragraph  which  Zenger 
had  printed  was  a  libel  or  not.  The  paragraph  had  been 
described  as  "false,  scandalous,  malicious,  and  seditious." 
Hamilton  declared  that  there  was  nothing  false  in  the 
paragraph,  but  that  it  was  a  statement  of  plain  and  well- 
known  facts.  The  chief  justice  ruled  that  the  truth  of  a 
libel  could  not  be  admitted  in  evidence  according  to  Eng- 
lish law.  But  Hamilton  impressed  upon  the  jury,  by  the 
very  force  of  his  character  and  eloquence,  the  justice  of 
his  own  view,   that  what  the  jury  was  to  decide  was 

»  Kapp,  p.  176. 


THE   PALATINE   IMMIGRATION  109 

whether  the  paragraph  of  Zenger,  if  true,  could  properly 
be  condemned  as  a  libel.  Hamilton  created  a  precedent 
for  the  future,  and  this  very  case  of  the  Zenger  trial  was 
referred  to  in  1792,  when  the  Fox  Libel  Act  became  a  law 
in  Enoland/ 

The  peroration  of  Hamilton  was  a  remarkable  per- 
formance, and  won  the  jury  unanimously.  In  conclusion 
the  able  advocate  said :  — 

The  Question  before  the  Court,  and  you,  Gentlemen  of  the 
Jury,  is  not  of  small  nor  private  Concern,  it  is  not  the  Cause  of 
a  poor  Printer,  nor  of  New  York  alone,  which  you  are  trying: 
No!  It  may  in  its  Consequence,  affect  every  Freeman  that  lives 
under  a  British  Government  on  the  Main  of  America!  It  is  the 
best  Cause,  it  is  the  Cause  of  Liberty,  and  I  make  no  Doubt 
but  your  upright  Conduct,  this  Day,  will  not  only  entitle  you  to 
the  Love  and  Esteem  of  your  Fellow-Citizens,  but  every  Man 
who  prefers  Freedom  to  a  Life  of  Slavery  will  bless  and  honor 
You,  as  Men  who  have  baffled  the  Attempt  of  Tyranny ;  and  by 
an  impartial  and  uncorrupt  Verdict,  have  laid  a  noble  Founda- 
tion for  securing  to  ourselves,  our  Posterity  and  our  Neighbors, 
That,  to  which  Nature  and  the  Laws  of  our  Country  have  given 
us  a  Right — The  Liberty — both  of  exposing  and  opposing 
arbitrary  Power  (in  these  Parts  of  the  World,  at  least)  ...  by 
speaking  and  writing  Truth! 

Judge  Delancey  delivered  a  charge  to  the  jury  which 
fell  upon  deaf  ears.  They  returned  very  shortly  with  the 
verdict  of  "not  guilty."  The  scene  that  followed  outside  of 
the  court-room,  when  the  acquittal  of  John  Peter  Zenger 
became  known,  had  had  no  equal  in  the  history  of  New 

'  Fiske,  The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,  vol.  ii,  p.  244.  Cf .  also  Kapp, 
chap,  ix, —  a  complete  report  of  the  trial,  with  the  speech  of  Hamilton, 
in  a  German  translation,  is  given  on  pp.  178-199.  Cf.  also  John  Peter 
Zenger:  His  Press,  His  Trial  and  a  Bibliography  of  Zenger  Imprints,  by 
Livingston  Rutherford.  New  York,  1904.  The  text  is  accompanied  by 
abundant  illustrations.  Zenger's  verbatim  report  of  1736  is  given  com- 
plete, in  its  original  form. 


110  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

York.  There  was  no  greater  rejoicing  on  the  day  of  the 
inauguration  of  George  Washington.  By  threats  the  judges 
tried  to  subdue  the  shouting,  but  they  might  as  well  have 
tried  to  stem  the  flow  of  the  tides.  An  English  naval 
officer  made  an  allusion  to  the  acquittal  of  the  Seven 
Bishops,  which  renewed  the  popular  demonstration.  The 
aged  Hamilton,  whose  bodily  infirmities  could  not  keep 
him  from  serving  his  people  and  nation,  was  the  hero  of 
the  hour,  and  on  leaving,  he  was  accompanied  by  an  escort 
and  martial  music. 

Zenger  also  deserves  a  large  share  of  the  glory  in  this 
brilliant  victory.  He  was  the  one  to  provoke  the  fight 
for  the  freedom  of  the  press,  and  then  he  added  to  his 
services  by  giving  in  his  newspaper  a  complete  verbatim 
account  of  the  trial,  a  valuable  piece  of  legal  and  historical 
literature.^  He  possessed  the  genuine  newspaper  instinct 
and  persistence.  When  in  prison,  his  bail  having  been 
fixed  at  so  high  a  sum,  eight  hundred  pounds,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  procure  release,  he  went  on  publishing  his 
newspaper  energetically.  He  communicated  with  and  dic- 
tated to  his  assistants,  availing  himself,  it  is  said,  of  a 
crack  in  the  door  of  his  prison,  and  his  newspaper 
appeared  without  interruption.  Peter  Zenger  was  no 
mere  typesetter,  but  a  live  and  fearless  journalist  of  the 
modern  stamp.  The  Zenger  trial  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  liberty  of  the  press  in  America,  and  Peter  Zenger 
himself  was  the  founder  of  the  first  independent  news- 
paper in  the  country. 

^  This  report,  printed  in  full  iu  the  works  of  Kapp  and  Rutherford,  named 
in  the  footnote  above,  puts  to  shame  the  charge  of  ignorance  sometimes  made 
against  the  "  Palatine  apprentice."  Equally  unfair  is  the  statement  that  the 
"  poor  printer "  knew  not  the  importance  of  the  stand  he  was  taking.  We 
might  in  the  same  way  find  fault  with  Luther  or  Columbus  because  they  did 
not  realize  at  the  time  the  full  consequences  of  the  radical  steps  they  were 
taking. 


5^ 


A  brief  Narrative  of  the  Cafe  and  Try-         ' 

^    xr  ^^^'^?  ^''^^''  ^''^<?^'''  Printer  of  the 

.-^JSew-York  weekly  Journal. 


-* — * — ft — * — ft — ^ — ^ — ^_ 


-ft — ft — + 

that 


AS  There  was  but  one   Printer  in   the   Province  o^' V^-^^-Tork    thot  '  I 

prmted  a  pub  ,ckNewsPaper,I  was  inHopes.,f  I  undertook  to  pub 
l.fh  another,  I  inight  make  it  worth  my  while  •  and  I  f;>.„  f      ^  i' 

.ho.^ht  to  .hfsatL^Jio^o  e'  ""K  t'l T^r'  '  "f '.'l''"^  "'  '^^'"'  ' 
nv.:Ic  T   n-  1     r  .  <^;'^')   DOU),  till  tne  fanitnry  fullowjn'-  when  rh» 

Ch.rf  Juft,ce  was  pleafed  to  animadvert  t^pon  the  Dudri/e  of  LibelV  n  a  Ion" 
M,  To;?'/  "'^'T"""°fhe  Grand  J.ry,  and  nfrcrward  oV  he  t J^rd 
££fwodf'   '^'^-    --Sa.n  pleafed   to  charge  the  Grand  Jur;!:,";^^ 

r'  ^"'^"  '  '  '^'"-  ~"^''^^f  '"■fh  readin-  a  Paragraph  or  two  out  of  the 
fame  Book,  concerning  L-beh  ;  ,hey  are  arrived  to  that  Hei^h?  that  thev 
fi  atThe^S  Th"  A"'""dverfion  3  \  is  high  Time  to  put  a  Stop  to  U  n'^ 
toe  at  the  rate  Things  are  now  carr  ed  on     when  all  Order  anH  rL.  ' 

Degrees,  muft  not  thefe  things  end  ,n  Sedition,  if  nottimely  prevented  >  Lenit7 

Ser^^'rW   "''""°'-'^'''',-    ">"'^«  you  then   to   e^Juire  after  the  Of^ 

Sv«,?'r^,''''™J'"  '  ■"^*'=°"/'^°^  Law  be  enabled  to  punifh  them. 

hJn '   ^'"''T''   '^'^  ""f.  mterpofe,   conMer  whether  the  ill  ConrequencS 

ij:  at  yo'^t.o';?  "^'  °'""'""=  °'  '^'  p^'^''^"  p-"'  -y "-  -  p" 

W  ,^/„,  them  to  f.awn  .r,d  Sedition.     As  ,o  the  J.    Pofnt  he  fu-,    f.  ,o  i 

JmiTj  f    V      P"''!'fl'f'.cr  p,ocure,  ^noth.r  to  pMifl,  it.  an  in  n,„f,r  of  hh,g 
h^w  'nj  T.,„g  of  the  Contents  or  Etfefis  of  it  -r  not  ;  for  no'.hilg  cLu  icnJr\ 

^  *uf, 


FIRST    PAGE    OF    ZENGER's   TRIAL 


ITRARK 

OF  \Hi 

UNIVERSITY  0I»  ILUNOIS 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  GERMANS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

The  various  religious  sects  —  The  Lutherans,  German  Reformed,  and  United 
Brethren,  the  three  most  influential  denominations  —  Statistics,  and 
characteristics  of  the  Pennsylvania  German  farmer,  and  the  sixteen 
points  enumerated  by  Dr,  Rush,  the  "  Tacitus  "  of  the  Pennsylvanians  — 
Industrial  activity  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  —  Their  printing- 
presses,  newspapers,  schools. 

The  principal  port  of  entry  for  German  immigrations 
before  the  Revolution  was  Philadelphia.  Some  Germans, 
as  will  be  seen,  entered  at  northern  ports;  after  the  ill- 
starred  arrival  of  the  Palatines,  however,  only  a  few  im- 
migrants landed  at  New  York;  Baltimore^  and  Charleston 
received  more  Germans,  though  the  exact  number  is  dif- 
ficult to  ascertain;  but  probably  all  ports  combined  did 
not  surpass  Philadelphia.  The  immigrations  before  the 
Revolution  may  be  divided  into  three  periods.  The  earli- 
est, from  1683  to  1710,  is  the  least  in  amount,  and  repre- 
sents the  initial  movement.  An  increase  came  between 
1710  and  1727,  the  latter  being  the  year  when  records 
of  the  immigration  were  begun,  with  names  of  persons 
and  generally  of  the  country  whence  they  came.  The 
reason  for  recording  the  immigration  was  its  great  in- 
crease, sometimes  amounting  to  from  five  to  eight  thou- 
sand a  year,  and  the  consequent  fear  that  this  swelling 
German  population,  together  with  the  large  Scotch-Irish 
immigration,  might  change    the  character  of    the  state 

'  Including  Annapolis  and  Alexandria,  i.  e.,  all  the  Germans  coming  by 
way  of  Chesapeake  Bay. 


112  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

politically  and  socially.  Though  there  recurred  from  time 
to  time  a  nativistic  agitation,  nothing  was  done  prohibit- 
ive of  immigration. 

After  the  settlement  of  Germantown,  in  1683,  and  its 
subsequent  accessions,  the  second  strong  current  of  Ger- 
man immigration  into  Pennsylvania  was  that  of  the  Swiss 
Mennonites,  about  1710.  They  were  of  the  same  religious 
faith  as  the  original  settlers  of  Germantown,  who  had 
been  Mennonites  before  joining  the  Quakers,  and  whose 
favorable  reports  from  Pennsylvania  no  doubt  induced 
their  brethren  to  try  their  fortunes  also  in  the  land  of 
Penn.  The  movement  gained  strength  in  1711,  when  the 
Mennonites  of  Bern  were  offered  free  transportation  down 
the  Rhine,  the  privileges  of  selling  their  property  and 
taking  their  families  with  them,  provided  they  would 
pledge  themselves  never  to  return  to  Switzerland.  The 
Mennonites  of  Holland  offered  them  a  helping  hand, 
especially  the  Dutch  ambassador,  Runckel.  The  Swiss 
Mennonites  selected  as  their  settlement  a  tract  of  ten 
thousand  acres  on  Pequa  Creek,  Conestoga,  in  what  is 
now  Lancaster  County  (organized  in  1729),  their  patent 
being  made  out  in  the  names  of  Hans  Herr  and  Martin 
Kundig.^  The  industrious  and  gentle  Mennonites  lived 
on  good  terms  with  the  Conestoga  and  Mingo  Indian 
tribes,  and  with  the  help  of  the  later  German  immigrants, 
that  soon  poured  into  the  county,  Lancaster  became  the 

*  Some  of  the  names  of  the  Lancaster  County  Swiss  are  the  following  : 
Aeschlimann,  Brubacher,  Baumgartner,  Brechbiihl,  Bucher,  Biihler,  Blirki, 
Ebersold,  Egli,  Fahrni,  Fliickiger,  Frick  (from  Zurich),  Galli,  Giiumann, 
Gerber,  Goshnauer,  Graf,  Gut,  Haldimann,  Hauri,  Huber,  Jeggli,  Kriihen- 
biihl  (Krehbiel),  Kuenzi,  Landis,  Maurer,  Meili,  Neukomm,  Oberli,  Ringer, 
Rohner,  Rubeli,  Rubi,  Ruegsegger,  Rupp,  Schallenberger,  Schiirch,  Stahli, 
Strahm,  Wenger,  Wisler,  Ziircher.  Cf .  Kuhns,  The  German  and  Swiss  Settle- 
ments of  Colonial  Pennsylvania :  a  Story  of  the  So-called  Pennsylvania  Dutch, 
pp.  46,  47.  Holt  &  Co.,  1901. 


THE   GERMANS   IN   PENNSYLVANIA        113 

garden  spot  and  pride  of  Pennsylvania.  Another  very  old 
settlement  of  the  Mennonites  was  that  at  Skippack  in 
Montgomery  County,  where  a  number  of  the  old  Ger- 
mantown  Mennonites  settled  as  early  as  1702.  One  hun- 
dred acres  were  presented  by  Van  Bibber  for  a  church, 
erected  about  1726. 

In  doctrine  the  Mennonites  resembled  the  Quakers 
closely.  They  would  not  bear  arms,  they  believed  in  the 
separation  of  church  and  state,  the  freedom  of  conscience, 
simplicity  of  dress  and  life.  They  refused  to  take  oaths, 
and  baptized  only  on  the  profession  of  faith.  Their  found- 
er was  Menno  Simons  (1492-1559)  of  Friesland.  In  the 
seventeenth  century  there  was  a  schism,  dividing  the  sect 
into  Ammenites^  (or  Uj^land  Mennonites)  and  Lowland 
Mennonites.  The  former  were  the  more  conservative  and 
rigorous  in  doctrine  and  in  dress.  The  use  of  buttons,  for 
instance,  was  considered  a  vain  thing,  and  hooks  and  eyes 
became  the  substitute.  They  are  also  called  Amish,  and 
their  number  in  the  United  States  to-day  is  about  fifteen 
thousand.^ 

Another  sect  which  chose  Pennsylvania  as  a  place  of 
refuge  very  early  in  the  history  of  the  province  was  that 
of  the  Dunkards  or  Tunkers.  Their  name  is  derived  from 
their  method  of  baptism,  dipping  (in  German,  eintunken). 

•  After  the  founder,  Jacob  Ammen,  of  the  Canton  Bern,  Switzerland. 
There  were  other  divisions  in  the  Mennonite  Church,  such  as  the  formation 
of  the  Reformed  Mennonites.  On  this  subject,  see  Kuhns,  German  and  Swiss 
Settlements  of  Pennsylvania,  pp.  178  ff.  The  chapter  on  "  The  Religious  Life  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans,"  pp.  153-192,  is  an  excellent  presentation  of  the 
subject  of  the  German  sectarians  of  Pennsylvania. 

*  The  last  census  (1900)  reports  the  number  of  Amish  as        .         13,413 

Of  old  Amish  as 2,438 

Together 15,851 

The  total  number  of  Mennonites  in  the  United  States,  including  the  Amish, 
is  59,892. 


114  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Mennonites,  there  was  with  them  no 
infant  baptism,  they  refused  to  take  oaths  or  bear  arms, 
and  to  accept  public  office.  They  would  not  institute  a  law- 
suit against  brethren  of  the  order,  and  they  lived  the  sim- 
ple life.  Alexander  Mack  was  the  founder,  in  1708,  estab- 
lishing a  congregation  at  Schwarzenau  in  Westphalia.  In 
course  of  time  all  of  the  Dunkards  came  to  Pennsylvania, 
the  first  group  of  twenty  families  arriving  in  1719.  They 
were  distributed  among  the  settlements  of  Germantown, 
Skippack,  Oley  (in  Berks  County),  and  Conestoga.  Their 
leader,  Peter  Baker  (Becker),  sometime  minister  under 
Mack,  made  a  tour  of  all  the  Tunker  settlements  in  1723, 
instituted  among  them  a  revival  of  their  religion,  and  suc- 
ceeded also  in  gaining  many  new  members.  One  of  the 
most  prominent  Tunkers  was  the  printer  CristojDher  Sauer, 
the  publisher  of  a  German  newspaper  with  a  wide  circula- 
tion throughout  the  province.  The  paper  made  him  one 
of  the  most  influential  men  among  the  German  settlers,  and 
gave  prominence  to  religious  principles  that  the  Tunkers 
had  in  common  with  the  Mennonites,  Quakers,  and  Ana- 
baptists, such  as  rigorous  simplicity  in  dress  and  habits,  re- 
fusal to  bear  arms,  take  oaths,  or  accept  public  office,  princi- 
ples which  were  opposed  to  the  more  strenuous  and  militant 
rule  of  life  exhibited  by  the  patriarch  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  Muhlenberg,  and  his  friend  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  Schlatter,  who  was  soon  to  appear  in  Pennsylvania. 
Conrad  Beissel  had  been  chosen  assistant  to  Baker,  in 
the  fold  of  the  Tunkers,  but,  "  being  wise  in  his  own  con- 
ceit," Beissel  soon  caused  trouble  in  the  church,  on  the 
issue  of  Sabbath  observance.  He  declared  that  the  day  of 
rest  should  be  celebrated  on  the  seventh  day,  and  when  a 
council  held  at  Conestoga,  where  the  founder,  Alexander 
Mack,  who  had  come  to  visit  Pennsylvania,  was  present, 


REAR   VIEW   OF   SAAL   AND   SISTER    HOUSE 


SOUTH    VIEW    OF    THE    BROTHER    HOUSE 

EPHRATA   MONASTERY 


OF  IHE 
UNIVERSITY  QJf  IlilNOIS 


THE   GERMANS   IN   PENNSYLVANIA        115 

decided  against  him,  he  determined  to  secede.  With  a  few 
followers  he  organized  a  society  of  "  Seventh-Day  Bap- 
tists" on  the  Conestoga,  but  some  years  later,  desiring  even 
greater  seclusion  from  the  world,  he  fled  to  the  Cocalico 
and  there  founded  the  Cloister  of  Ephrata.^  Its  successful 
administration,  peculiar  customs,  and  devotion  to  music,  ren- 
dered it  unique  and  picturesque.  There  was  a  home  for  the 
brothers  and  one  for  the  sisters,  with  such  names  as  Kedar, 
Bethania,  and  Saron,  and  some  of  their  buildings  have 
lasted  even  to  our  day.  Tonsure  and  monkish  robes  were 
introduced,  asceticism  prevailed,  and  devotion  to  the  order 
characterized  them  from  the  beginning,  when  the  brethren 
balked  not  at  becoming  their  own  plow-horses.  All  pro- 
perty was  owned  by  the  order,  which  grew  rapidly  in  wealth 
throuo^h  the  self-sacrificingf  toil  of  its  members.  The  cloister 
owned  a  printing-press,  from  which  there  are  still  extant 
many  of  the  mystical  writings  of  Conrad  Beissel  ("  Vater 
Friedsam  Gottrecht "),  and  some  of  the  religious  songs 
chanted  by  the  choirs.  The  literature  of  Ephrata  reminds 
one  strongly  of  the  Mystic  Kelpius  and  his  brotherhood, 
of  which  the  Ephrata  Community,  as  has  been  observed 
above,  is  the  logical  successor. 

Another  sect  that  built  its  altar  in  the  forests  of  Penn- 
sylvania was  that  of  the  Schwenkfelders.  They  were 
founded  by  a  contemporary  of  Luther,  Kaspar  Schwenk- 
feld,  of  Ossing,  Silesia.  They  suffered  persecution  at  the 
hands  of  Protestants  and  Catholics  alike,  until  in  1726 
they  were  hospitably  received  by  Zinzendorf.  In  1733-34 
they  immigrated  and  settled  for  the  most  part  in  Mont- 
gomery County,  being  most  numerous  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Goshenhoppen. 

*  Cf.  Seidensticker,  Bilder  aus   der  deutsch-pennsylvanischen    Geschichte, 
pp.  169-250:  "  Ephrata.  Eine  amerikanische  Klostergeschichte." 


116  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

The  three  most  important  religious  denominations,  how- 
ever, were  the  Lutherans,  the  German  Reformed,  and  the 
United  Brethren  (Moravians).  They  were  not  prominent 
in  the  earliest  history  of  the  German  settlements  in  Penn- 
sylvania, though  they  may  have  been  represented.  Being 
far  more  numerous  in  the  mother  country,  they  were 
bound  to  become  more  and  more  prominent  as  the  current 
of  German  immigration  grew  in  volume.  This  applies 
especially  to  the  Lutherans  and  Reformed,  the  Moravians 
finally  yielding  to  the  former  in  numbers,  power,  and  in- 
fluence, retaining,  however,  the  most  prominent  place  in 
the  field  of  missionary  work.  The  first  Lutheran  preacher 
ordained  in  America  was  Justus  Falckner,  who  entered 
the  ministry  under  the  auspices  of  the  Swedish  Lutheran 
church  of  Wicacoa  (now  Southwark,  a  part  of  Philadel- 
phia). Undoubtedly  he  was  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the 
first  German  Lutheran  preacher  in  America.  Soon  after 
ordination  (1703)  he  preached  to  the  Germans  in  Falck- 
ner's  Swamp  (New  Hanover),  the  land  which  his  brother, 
Daniel  Falckner,  had  acquired  for  the  Frankfort  Com- 
pany.^ Soon  Justus  Falckner  was  called  to  serve  the  Lu- 
theran churches  in  New  York  and  Albany,  leaving  Falck- 
ner's  Swamp  without  a  preacher.  Another  old  Lutheran 
settlement  before  1729  was  that  called  Trappe  (New 
Providence),  located  south  of  New  Hanover,  between  the 
Schuylkill  and  the  Perkiomen,  in  Montgomery  County. 
The  other  Lutherans  were  located  in  Germantown  and 
Philadelphia.  It  was  very  common  in  the  early  days 
for  the  Lutherans  and  Reformed  to  use  the  same  build- 
ing for  worship,  sometimes  even  to  retain  the  same  min- 

1  As  previously  noted,  it  was  the  remaiuing  portion  of  the  25,000  acres 
after  2675  bad  been  deducted  for  Germantown  and  300  for  a  tract  on  the 
Schuylkill  above  the  Wissahickon,  leaving  22,025  acres. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        117 

ister,  as  was  the  practice  in  Philadelphia.  In  German- 
town  the  Lutherans  laid  the  foundation  of  their  church 
in  1730/ 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Lutheran  Church  could 
not  prosper.  Therefore  three  congregations,  those  of 
Philadelphia,  New  Hanover,  and  Providence,  in  1733, 
united  to  petition  the  Lutheran  court  preacher  of  London, 
Reverend  F.  M.  Ziegenhagen,  for  assistance.  A  minister 
was  asked  for,  and  contributions  in  money  for  the  building 
of  a  Lutheran  church.  The  matter  was  much  delayed,  be- 
cause of  the  dishonesty  of  two  of  the  delegates,  who  had 
been  sent  abroad  for  the  purpose  of  getting  financial  as- 
sistance. In  1741  a  fortunate  choice  was  made  in  the  se- 
lection of  Heinrich  Melchior  Muhlenberg,  as  pastor  for  the 
three  Pennsylvania  congregations.  Muhlenberg  had  stud- 
ied at  Gottingen  and  prepared  himself  for  his  profession 
at  Halle,  where  Pastor  August  Hermann  Francke  was  the 
head  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  or  more  strictly  of  the  Pie- 
tistic  wing.  Muhlenberg  did  not  proceed  at  once  to  Penn- 
sylvania, but  preferred  first  to  visit  Pastor  Bolzius,  the 
leader  of  the  Salzburg  colony  in  Georgia,  in  order  to  get 
from  him  some  information  as  to  conditions  in  America. 
This  was  done  on  the  advice  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Ziegen- 
hagen and  was  fortunate  for  him,  preparing  the  young 
man  well  for  coming  events  in  Pennsylvania  and  helping 
him  to  understand  a  very  intricate  problem  in  the  south- 
ern colony,  which  he  was  subsequently  called  to  solve. 
In  Charleston,  before  he  reached  Ebenezer  in  Georgia, 
he  heard  that  Count  Zinzendorf  had  arrived  in  Philadel- 
phia under  the  name  of  von  Thiirnstein,  and  that  he  was 
making  a  great  stir  in  the  church.  Muhlenberg  there- 

1  Other  German  denominations,  that  were  more  numerous,  had  meeting- 
houses long  before  this. 


118  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

fore  hastened  his  departure,  boarded  an  mferior  sloop, 
but  arrived  safely  on  November  25,  1741,  in  Philadel- 
phia. 

When  he  landed,  he  was  told  that  one  part  of  the 
Lutherans  favored  Count  Zinzendorf,  and  that  the  others 
held  to  Valentin  Kraft,  the  Lutheran  preacher  who  had 
been  deposed  by  the  church  authorities  in  Germany.  He 
heard  also  that  in  his  prospective  home  at  New  Hanover, 
a  dentist  named  Schmidt  was  serving  as  preacher.  With 
such  prospects  before  him,  Muhlenberg,  on  a  raw,  cold, 
wintry  day  at  the  end  of  November,  rode  to  New  Hanover, 
thirty-six  miles  distant,  in  order  to  present  himself  to  his 
congregation.  The  confusion  resulting  on  his  arrival  drew 
from  Muhlenberg  the  comment  in  a  letter,  "  that  he  was 
obliged  to  undergo  a  moral  seasickness  after  his  physical 
one  ! "  The  people  in  Trappe  counseled  him  to  make  a  com- 
promise with  Mr.  Kraft,  but  that  was  impossible  for  such 
a  man  as  Muhlenberg,  not  given  to  halfway  measures, 
particularly  when  he  knew  that  he  was  right.  The  firm 
position  he  took,  demanding  without  stint  the  office  for 
which  the  three  congregations  had  called  him,  had  a  last- 
ing good  effect.  The  battle  was  fought  to  a  finish  at  once. 
Kraft  was  expelled  and  Muhlenberg  had  a  clear  field  ever 
after. 

There  was  also  considerable  difficulty  with  the  Mora- 
vians, who  claimed  to  be  a  part  of  the  Lutheran  Church, 
with  Zinzendorf  as  its  proper  head.  Muhlenberg's  course 
of  action  was  characterized  by  tact  and  firmness,  and  he 
was  soon  made  more  secure  in  his  position  by  a  favorable 
decision  in  the  courts.  Combining  piety  and  learning  with 
clear  vision  and  rare  gifts  of  organization,  he  gave  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  America  such  a  good  beginning  that 
in   course  of   time  it  surpassed  in  size  and   influence   the 


*fyoi 


ftujyoij 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        119 

German  Reformed  Church,  which,  when  Schlatter  first  ar- 
rived, possessed  a  larger  number  of  preachers  and  churches. 
The  steady  growth  of  the  Lutheran  Church  can  be  followed 
in  detail  in  the  so-called  "Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  ^  a  large 
collection  of  reports  and  letters  sent  to  the  Lutheran  min- 
isterium  of  Halle  in  Germany,  by  Lutheran  preachers  in 
America.  Most  instructive  are  the  numerous  reports  of 
Muhlenberg,  stating  in  detail  the  facts  of  his  arrival,  his 
initial  dif&culties  and  every  subsequent  step  taken ;  how 
he  at  first  was  the  pastor  of  the  three  churches  of  New 
Hanover,  Providence,  and  Philadelphia,  until,  the  duties 
becoming  too  burdensome,  it  was  necessary  to  get  assist- 
ance, the  Reverend  Mr.  Brunnholtz  being  then  assigned  to 
Philadelphia  and  Germantown,  Muhlenberg  having  chosen 
New  Hanover  and  Providence ;  then  follow  the  plans  for 
building  a  church  in  Philadelphia,  the  cost  seeming  at 
first  an  insurmountable  barrier,  overcome  at  last  with  un- 
expected ease  "  mit  Gottes  Hilfe  " ;  the  formation  of  new- 
congregations  in  Lancaster,  York,  Reading,  Tulpehocken, 
Easton,  and  many  other  places  where  "  parched  souls  were 
crying  in  the  desert."  The  Halle  reports,  somewhat  pe- 
dantic in  style,  and  weighted  down  with  a  mass  of  mate- 
rial, give  us  a  realistic  picture  of  the  times,  from  the 
ministerial  point  of  view.  The  accuracy  of  the  reports  can- 
not be  questioned,  since  they  were  written  by  men  of  learn- 
ing and  strict  regard  for  the  truth.  The  variety  of  quali- 
fications necessary  for  such  a  post  as  Miihlenberg's  can- 
not be  well  understood  without  a  perusal  of  his  reports. 
He  was  minister,  helper,  and  adviser  in  social  and  spirit- 

'  Nachrichten  von  den  vereinigten  Deutschen  Evangelisch-Lutherischen  Ge- 
meinen  in  N ord-Amerika,  absonderlich  in  Pennsylvanien.  Halle,  in  Verlegnng 
des  Waisenhauses,  1787.  1  Bd.  Allentown,  Pa.,  1886  ;  2  Bd.  Philadelphia, 
1895  ;  reprints  in  German.  The  work  has  been  translated,  and  published  in 
two  volumes  by  the  Lutheran  Publication  Society,  Philadelphia,  1880-81. 


120  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

ual  matters,  diplomatist,  man  of  affairs,  and  frontiersman. 
Hardships,  discomforts,  or  bodily  fatigue  never  could 
swerve  him  from  his  purpose,  adventure  and  hairbreadth 
escapes  added  zest  to  the  sum  of  his  existence.  An  ex- 
perience such  as  the  following,  at  the  river  crossing  in 
midwinter,  was  not  uncommon. 

Returning  from  service  in  Providence  late  in  November, 
1749,  Muhlenberg  had  twenty  miles  to  ride  to  his  residence. 
Night  overtook  him  and  his  companion,  and  they  reached 
the  Perkiomen  Creek  at  eleven  o'clock.  This  was  still  two 
miles  distant  from  Muhlenberg's  home,  and,  to  his  great 
surprise,  he  found  the  river  frozen  over.  His  companion 
had  a  small  horse,  unshod,  and  the  minister,  therefore, 
rode  in  advance  to  make  a  path  in  the  ice.  To  accomplish 
this,  he  had  to  force  his  horse  to  rear,  so  that  on  coming 
down  the  animal  would  break  holes  in  the  ice  with  his 
fore  feet.  They  got  over  safely,  but  in  the  darkness  missed 
the  outlet  on  the  other  side,  and  came  to  a  bank  that  was 
high  and  almost  perpendicular.  Not  daring  to  venture 
back,  they  took  their  saddles  off  their  horses,  and,  with 
the  aid  of  the  bushes,  clambered  up  on  land.  They  tied 
the  girths  to  the  bridle  of  the  small  horse,  and,  forcing 
him  to  stand  on  his  hind  feet,  enabled  him  to  reach  the 
top  of  the  bank  with  his  fore  feet.  Being  pulled  vigor- 
ously, the  horse  helped  himself  bravely,  and  reached  the 
top  in  safety.  But  when  the  same  method  was  applied  to 
Muhlenberg's  horse,  which  was  old  and  stiff,  the  bridle 
broke  and  the  unfortunate  beast  fell  backward  with  its 
full  weight  upon  the  ice.  The  ice  gave  way,  and  the  poor 
animal  lay  in  the  water  on  its  back  with  legs  turned  up, 
and  must  have  drowned,  had  not  the  men  given  it  some 
help;  but  the  horse  broke  through  again  and  started  for 
the  other  side   obliging  them  to  abandon  it,  to  be  looked 


THE  GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        121 

for  next  day,  and  fortunately  to  be  rescued.  Saddles  and 
baggage  were  placed  on  the  other  horse,  and  the  men  wan- 
dered about  for  some  time  in  the  dark  thickets,  in  a  circle, 
until  the  stars  happening  to  shed  light  for  a  short  while, 
allowed  them  to  find  their  home,  about  three  o'clock  in 
the  morninof. 

The  Lutheran  church  built  in  Philadelphia,  the  St. 
Michaelskirche,  was  found  to  be  too  small  after  twenty 
years'  occupancy.  A  new  one,  the  famous  Zion  Church, 
was  beg'un  in  1766  and  consecrated  in  1769.  It  was  for 
many  years  the  largest  church  in  Philadelphia,  and  because 
of  its  spacious  interior  (108  feet  long  and  70  feet  broad) 
frequently  served  as  a  gathering  place  for  large  assem- 
blages, some  of  them  noted  in  American  history.  Thus  the 
memorial  meeting  in  honor  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  who 
died  the  year  before,  was  held  in  Zion  Church  in  1791 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Philosophical  Society.  On  Decem- 
ber 26, 1799,  in  the  same  church.  Congress  held  the  funeral 
services  of  George  Washington,  and  on  that  occasion, 
those  ringing  words,  "  First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  first  in 
the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,"  pronounced  in  the  eulogy 
of  Henry  Lee,  were  heard  for  the  first  time.* 

The   German-Lutheran   congregation   of    Philadelphia 

1  In  the  Revolutionary  War,  during  the  occupation  of  the  British,  the 
church  was  used  as  a  hospital  for  soldiers  (1778),  while  the  older  German 
church,  St.  Michael's,  served  as  a  place  of  worship  for  the  British,  the  Ger- 
man congregation  being  allowed  to  retain  it  for  service  only  one  half  the  time. 
The  British  destroyed  or  removed  all  the  seats  of  Zion  Church,  and  hence 
the  curious  injunction,  after  the  departure  of  the  invaders  (found  in  Hallesche 
Nachrichten,  vol.  ii,  p.  731),  that  the  congregation  should  bring  their  chairs 
with  them.  The  church  served  about  one  hundred  years,  when  it  was  torn 
down  and  succeeded  by  the  New  Zion  Church  on  Franklin  Street;  the  large 
congregation  was  divided  into  several  smaller  ones.  Cf .  Hallesche  Nachrichten, 
§§  1241,  1245,  1408,  1424-26.  Also  Seideusticker,  Bilder,  etc.,  p.  254,  and 
Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp.  190-192.  "  Das  alte  Philadelphia  "  (Seideu- 
sticker). 


122  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

numbered  nine  hundred  souls/  the  most  numerous  in  the 
capital  city  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  In  1762  Miihlen- 
berg  took  charge  of  the  Philadelphia  congregation,  be- 
cause it  needed  a  firm  hand,  and  he  continued  until  1776, 
when,  on  account  of  his  age,  he  preferred  to  go  back  to 
his  old  charge  in  the  rural  Trappe  district,  where  he  spent 
the  last  ten  years  of  his  life.  During  his  long  career  he 
was  frequently  called  to  arbitrate  church  difficulties,  as 
near  by  in  New  Jersey,  or  in  distant  Georgia,^  or  to  inspire 
confidence  among  scattered  congregations  in  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  Virginia.  In  the  summer  of  1751  and  again 
in  1752,  in  order  to  strengthen  the  Lutheran  church  in 
New  York,  he  resided  there  as  its  pastor.  Muhlenberg 
cultivated  friendly  relations  with  the  Lutheran  Swedes, 
who  had  been  on  the  Delaware  before  the  arrival  of  Will- 
iam Penn  ;  he  was  on  a  cordial  footing  also  with  the 
German  Reformed  pastors,  particularly  Schlatter.  There 
was  likewise  an  intimacy  between  the  Lutherans  and  Epis- 
copalians, another  instance  of  which  appeared  in  South 
Carolina.^  Strange  as  it  may  seem  at  the  present  day,  a 
hard  and  fast  line  was  drawn  between  Lutherans  and 
Moravians.  This  was  probably  due  in  part  to  the  person- 
ality of  Zinzendorf,  in  part  also  to  the  fact  that  the  Mora- 
vians claimed  to  be  Lutherans,  accepting  the  dogmatic 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Augsburg  Confession.  The 
rivalry  as  to  who  truly  represented  Lutheranism  occasioned 
bitter  antagonism. 

As  the  Lutherans  had  a  great  leader  in  Muhlenberg,  so 
the  German  Reformed  congregations  found  an  organizer 

^  The  charter,  see  Hallesche  Nachrichten,  vol.  ii,  pp.  629-632  (§§  1256- 
60),  mentions  "about  500  heads  of  families,"  in  1705. 

2  See  Chapter  vi  and  Chapter  ix,  respectively. 

^  Cf.  Chapter  vii.  Some  of  the  Lutheran  Swedes  of  Pennsylvania  also 
joined  the  Episcopal  Church. 


HEINRICH   MELCHIOR   MUHLENBERG 


U! 


•  HI 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        123 

in  Michael  Schlatter.  Most  of  the  Palatines  probably  be- 
longed to  the  German  Reformed  Church,  which  was  atin 
to  the  Lutheran,  but  followed  reforms  instituted  by  Calvin 
and  Zwingli.  They  were  very  close  in  their  religious  doc- 
trines to  the  Presbyterians,  and  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church.  Schlatter  was  sent  to  America  by  the  synods  of 
Holland,  the  Reformed  ministerium  in  the  Palatinate  being 
too  weak  and  humble  to  extend  its  influence  to  foreiofn 
parts.  When  he  arrived,  in  September,  1746,  he  found 
only  four  preachers  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, while  the  number  of  communicants  was  estimated 
at  fifteen  thousand.  He  hastened  from  one  settlement  to 
another,  to  Whitpen,  Germantown,  Goshenhoppen,  Tulpe- 
hocken,  Lancaster,  Falckner's  Swamp,  and  Indian  Field, 
to  gather  his  sheep  into  folds.  He  seems  to  have  obtained 
assistance  more  easily  than  Miihlenberg,  for  in  1748  four 
other  preachers  came  to  help  him,  in  addition  to  those 
already  present.  In  1751  Schlatter  reported  to  the  Dutch 
synods  that  there  were  fifteen  Reformed  parishes  in  the 
country,  with  forty-six  churches  (thirteen  parishes  with 
thirty-eight  churches  being  located  in  Pennsylvania).  Most 
of  them,  he  declared,  were  without  preachers  or  teachers, 
and  he  appealed  earnestly  to  the  Dutch  synods  to  send 
ministers.  The  same  cry  went  up  from  Miihlenberg  and 
all  other  representatives  of  denominations,  showing  that 
if  the  frontiersmen  were  irreligious,  a  mitigating  circum- 
stance was  their  inability  to  get  religious  instruction. 
Schlatter  was  not  as  fortunate  in  his  own  career  as  Miihl- 
enberg. There  were  misunderstandings  with  the  synods 
in  Holland,  and,  perhaps  in  part  through  his  own  fault, 
his  position  in  his  own  congregation  was  undermined.  He 
resigned  as  preacher  in  Phila^lphia,'  and  became  army 

^  The  German  Reformed  Church  was  also  once  used  on  a  public  occasion. 


124  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

chaplain  under  Colonel  Loudon  in  the  Royal  American 
Regiment,  fourth  battalion,  which  was  mainly  composed 
of  Germans.  He  was  chaplain  in  the  campaign  against 
Nova  Scotia  and  Louisbourg.  He  held  a  similar  position 
during  the  Revolutionary  War. 

"^  The  fact  of  Schlatter's  serving  as  army  chaplain  is 
significant,  likewise  his  cordial  relations  with  Muhlenberg. 
As  to  their  principles  of  life,  their  views  on  religion  and 
the  social  order,  the  two  men  were  very  much  alike,  fight- 
ing shoulder  to  shoulder.  Together  they  represented 
the  strong  counter-current  in  Pennsylvania,  opposing  the 
views  on  state  and  religion  held  by  Quakers,  Mennonites, 
Pietists,  Moravians,  and  numerous  other  non-resistant,  non- 
office-holding  sectarians.  Muhlenberg  and  Schlatter  were 
fighters,  vigorous  men,  whose  influence  later  fell  heavily 
in  the  balance  for  armed  resistance  against  British  ojDpres- 
sion,  and  who  always  favored  strenuous,  virile  principles 
in  church  and  state  government. 

'  Totally  different  was  the  influence  of  the  Moravians,  or 
United  Brethren.  The  name  Moravian  is  not  a  happy  one. 
It  serves  to  commemorate  one  fact  in  history,  but  only 
one,  namely,  that  originally  a  number  of  the  brethren 
lived  in  Moravia  (Austria),  where  they  had  descended 
from  the  Hussites  (Utraquists)  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia.* 

On  February  19,  1776,  the  Honorable  Dr.  W.  Smith  delivered  a  eulogy  on 
General  Montgomery,  who  fell  at  Quebec.  The  number  of  hearers  was 
estimated  at  four  thousand.  Apart  from  the  German  Zion  Church  and  the 
German  Reformed  Church,  Philadelphia  possessed  very  few  public  struc- 
tures. Of.  Seidensticker,  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp.  190-191. 

1  Followers  of  John  Huss,  born  1369,  burned  at  the  stake  in  Constance,  in 
1415.  He  was  the  great  religious  reformer  before  Luther,  descended  from 
Czech  peasants,  influenced  by  doctrines  of  Wyclif,  who  wished  to  bring 
about  a  reformation  without  separation  from  the  Catholic  Church.  He  was 
summoned  before  the  Council  of  Constance  and,  in  spite  of  a  safe-conduct  of 
the  Emperor,  was  arrested  and  burned  as  a  heretic.  His  martyrdom  greatly 


THE   GERMANS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA        125 

Suffering  persecution  at  home,  the  remnant,  in  1722,  set- 
tled in  Herrnhut,  Saxony,  on  the  estates  of  the  Count  of 
Zinzendorf  at  his  invitation.  It  is  questionable  whether 
many  of  the  brotherhood,  as  constituted  in  the  eifj-hteenth 
century  ^  or  at  the  present  day,  ever  saw  Moravia,  or 
whether  they  were  ever  descended  from  Moravians.  The? 
German  name  given  them  is  "  Herrnhuter,"  while  the  | 
members  themselves  adopted  the  name  "  Unitas  Fratrum," 
or  "  United  Brethren." 

The  United  Brethren  are  most  noted  as  missionaries, 
and  at  the  very  earliest  period  set  up  as  their  goal  the 
conversion  of  the  Indians.  With  this  purpose  in  view  they 
had  selected  Georgia  as  their  appropriate  field,  in  1735-36 
settling  with  the  Salzburgers  at  Ebenezer.  But  when  dur- 
ing the  war  with  Spain  they  were  expected  to  bear  arms  , 
in  defense  of  the  colony  in  opposition  to  their  religious   I 
principles,  they  left  Georgia  and  betook  themselves  to 
Pennsylvania,   1738-39.    David    Nitschmann,  son-in-law    ; 
of  Zinzendorf,  bought  five  hundred  acres  on  the  Lehigh   | 
(Lecha),  '^  in  a  barren  wooded  region."  Count  Zinzendorf, 
who  visited  the  spot  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  17-11,  gave 
it  the  name  of  Bethlehem.  In  the  same  year  they  bought 
nearly  five  thousand  acres  from  George  Whitefield,  the 
Methodist,  who  had  made  this  purchase  in  order  to  found 

increased  the  spread  of  liberal  doctrines  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia.    The 
fierce  Hussite  wars  arose  iu  1419,  and  lasted  until  1434. 

'  Queerly  enough,  the  name  Moravian  has  clung  to  them  in  the  United 
States,  though  there  is  documentary  evidence  showing  that  the  members 
themselves  fought  against  this  appellation  in  the  eighteenth  century.  "  We 
are  Lutherans,"  said  one  (Brother  Leonhard  Schnell,  "  Diary,"  1747,  Virginia 
Magazine,  vol.  xii,  pp.  55  ff.)  of  the  traveling  missionaries,  and  "  there  are 
now  [1747]  not  ten  in  Bethlehem  who  were  born  in  Moravia."  We  can  say 
with  positiveness  that  the  so-called  "Moravians"  that  appeared  in  Penn- 
sylvania were  Germans,  the  exceptions  being  generally  brethren  not  from 
Moravia,  but  from  their  other  European  home,  namely,  England. 


-?• 


126  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

,  a  negro  school,  a  scheme  doomed  to  failure  financially. 
On  this  place  Nazareth  was  founded.  The  immigration 
of  Moravians  to  Pennsylvania  numbered  from  seven  to 
eight  hundred  between  1741  and  1762.  Zinzendorf,  on 
his  arrival,  had  distinctly  in  mind  the  realization  of  two 
ideals:  first,  the  conversion  of  the  Indians,  secondly,  the 
union  of  all  Protestant  churches  in  a  bond  of  the  spirit. 
Endowed  with  a  vast  amount  of  optimism  and  energy, 
Zinzendorf  proceeded  to  invite  delegates  of  all  Protestant 
denominations  and  sects  to  meet  in  Germantown  on  Jan- 
uary 1,  174:2.  A  number  of  conferences  were  held  in  dif- 
ferent places  under  "the  Congregation  of  God  in  the 
Spirit."  At  first  there  seemed  to  be  hope  of  accomplishing 
something,  but  it  soon  appeared  that  few  were  willing  to 
give  up  anything,  or  yield  a  point.  Zinzendorf  and  his 
followers  held  the  sway,  and  the  others  grew  suspicious 
and  withdrew,  thinking  that  Moravian  influence  and  doc- 
trine would  overpower  them.  Those  that  remained  entered 
the  Moravian  Church,  when  it  was  organized  as  a  separate 
denomination  in  the  Twenty-eighth  Synod,  held  in  Beth- 
lehem, October  23-27,  1748.  Zinzendorf 's  scheme  was  too 
grand  for  realization,  and  it  failed  as  completely  as  the 
similar  earlier*  attempt  by  Kelpius.  The  religious  sects 
had  come  to  Pennsylvania  to  worship  in  their  own  way, 
not  to  give  up  their  idiosyncrasies,  and  time  alone  would 
be  able  to  put  them  into  the  mood  of  compromise. 

Zinzendorf  made  three  journeys  into  the  Indian  coun- 
try, and  then  returned  to  Europe,  in  1743.  His  successor 
was  August  Gottlieb  Spangenberg,  who  for  twenty  years 
was  the  able  head  of  the  United  Brethren.  He  was  sec- 
onded by  Cammerhoff  and  Peter  Bohler.  The  missionary 
work  among  the  Indians  was  continued,  and  with  very 

I  '  See  the  close  of  Chapter  n,  p.  50. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        127 

great  success,  first  in  the  states  of  New  York  and  Con-  l 
necticut.  After  the  Christian  Indians  were  driven  away 
from  the  colonies  by  the  hostihty  of  the  white  settlers, 
a  new  Indian  settlement,  Gnadenhiitten,  was  begun  at 
the  junction  of  the  Mahoney  Creek  and  Lehigh  River. 
Other  missionary  posts  were  built  out  into  the  wilderness, 
and  such  devoted  missionaries  as  Ranch,  Heckewelder, 
Zeisberger,  Jungmann,  Post,  and  Sensemann  gained  for 
the  Moravians  the  well-earned  reputation  of  having  been 
the  most  successful  Indian  missionaries  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States/ 

Another  important  influence  of  the  Moravians  was 
wrought  by  their  educational  institutions.  Their  day-  and 
boarding-schools  in  ten  different  localities,  particularly  in 
Bethlehem,  Litiz,  and  Nazareth,  were  among  the  best  in 
Pennsylvania.  The  young  ladies'  seminary  at  Bethlehem 
is  still  in  existence  and  of  very  great  usefulness.  It  was 
founded  in  1749  and  claims  in  its  modern  advertisement 
to  be  the  oldest  school  of  its  kind  in  America.  Similar  in 
purpose  is  the  Moravian  Ladies'  Seminary  in  Salem,  North 
Carolina,  which  also  was  of  very  early  foundation. 

In  doctrine  the  United  Brethren  avoided  dogmatic 
teaching,  adhering  to  the  Scriptures  for  the  ethical  prin- 
ciples of  life.  This  was  shown  by  those  early  missionaries 
who,  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  made 
extensive  tours  along  the  frontier  settlements,  starting 
from  Pennsylvania,  proceeding  through  the  mountains 
of  Virginia,  then  overland  through  North  Carolina  and 
along  the  seacoast  of  the  Carolinas  to  Georgia,  taking 
every  opportunity  to  preach  the  gospel,  saving  souls  and 

*  Some  of  their  missions  in  the  Middle  West  will  be  spoken  of  in  suc- 
ceeding chapters.  Cf .  Chapter  xni,  "  The  Settlement  of  the  Ohio  Valley." 
The  United  Brethren  also  sent  missionaries  to  the  Danish  West  Indies. 


128  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

giving  encouragement  by  word  and  deed.  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  why  they  occasioned  so  much  opposition 
on  the  part  of  other  denominations,  unless  it  be  that 
their  preaching  was  so  good,  so  simple  and  effective/ 

The  German  Catholics  were  not  numerous  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. There  were  congregations  in  Goshenhoppen  (Mont- 
gomery County),  in  Lancaster,  and  in  Philadelphia,  where 
they  built  their  Trinity  Church  in  1788.  In  the  year  1757 
there  were  nine  hundred  German  Catholics  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, distributed  among  the  congregations  named. 
r  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  number  of  Germans  in  Penn- 
sylvania before  the  Revolution,  but  an  approximation  at 
least  can  be  made,  far  more  satisfactorily  than  for  the 
other  colonies.  From  1727  on,  the  immigration  at  the  port 
of  Philadelphia  was  recorded.  A  careful  computation  of 
the  number  of  Germans  landed  at  Philadelphia  between 
1727  and  1775  was  made  by  Kuhns,^  based  on  the  records, 
and  compared  with  similar  estimates  by  Rupp,^  with  the 
result,  that  68,872  Germans  arrived  between  1727  and 
1775.  Kuhns  assumes  that  before  1727  there  were  almost 
twenty  thousand  Germans  in  Pennsylvania,  bringing  the 
total  up  to  88,872.  For  the  natural  increase  of  several 
generations  he  adds  a  little  over  twenty  thousand,  making 
a  grand  total  of  about  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand 
Pennsylvania  Germans  in  1775.  This  figure  represents 
one  third  of  the  population,  which  agrees  *  with  statements 

^  For  a  fuller  account  of  their  journeys  see  Chapter  vii,  pp.  203  ff. 

^  German  and  Stviss  Settlements  of  Pennsylvania,  p.  57,  etc. 

^  I.  D.  Rupp,  Thirty  Thousand  Names  of  Immigrants. 

*  The  agreement,  however,  is  accidental.  Kuhns  takes  no  account  of  the 
migrations  of  the  Germans  after  their  arrival  in  Pennsylvania.  One  third  or 
more  probably  went  into  Maryland,  Virginia,  or  North  Carolina.  But  the 
estimate  of  the  number  of  Germans  in  Pennsylvania  as  one  third  of  the 
entire  population  is  undoubtedly  safe,  since  it  was  made  by  so  many  con- 
temporary authorities.  Kuhns's  rate  of  increase  is  taken  at  too  low  a  figure. 


THE   GERMANS   IN   PENNSYLVANIA        129 

made  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  Dr.  Rush,  the  historian 
Proud,  and  others,^  to  the  effect  that  the  Germans  in 
Pennsylvania  numbered  about  one  third  of  the  population. 

We  have  found  the  Germans  settling  in  Philadelphia 
and  the  neighboring  counties,  Montgomery,  Lancaster,  and 
Berks.  They  then  pushed  northward  and  westward  to 
Lehigh,  Northampton,  and  Monroe  counties,  and  to  Leba- 
non and  Dauphin  ;  reaching  the  Susquehanna  they  crossed 
and  settled  the  counties  of  York,  Cumberland,  and  Adams, 
then  following  the  slopes  of  the  mountains  they  went 
southward  through  Maryland  into  Virginia,  ascending  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  and  settling  it  from  Harpers  Ferry  to 
Lexington,  Virginia.  Using  this  main  avenue  for  their 
progress,  they  settled  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  and 
later  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Pennsylvania,  therefore, 
was  the  distributing  centre  for  the  German  immigrations, 
whence  German  settlers  spread  over  all  the  neighboring 
provinces. 

Though  living  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States, 
the  pre-revolutionary  Germans  all  belonged  to  the  same 
general  type,  since  they  came  from  a  common  stock  and 
home,  mainly  from  the  Rhine  countries  and  Switzerland, 

The  increase  was  probably  such  as  to  double  every  twenty-three  years,  or 
nearly  so. 

^  Miihlenberg  (Hallesche  NachricJiten,  vol.  i,  p.  411)  estimates  the  popula- 
tion of  Pennsylvania  in  1752  as  follows  :  Schlatter  gives  the  number  of  Ger- 
man Reformed  in  Pennsylvania  as  30,000  (46  congregations,  16  parishes), 
and  concedes  that  the  German  Reformed  are  only  one  third  of  the  total 
German  population  of  Pennsylvania.  Miihlenberg  estimates  the  Lutherans 
at  twice  the  number  of  the  Reformed.  Tbe  result  would  be,  according  to 
Schlatter's  estimate,  that  there  were  90,000  Germans  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
according  to  Miihlenberg  90,000  plus  the  Germans  of  various  sects,  making 
over  100,000  in  1752.  The  natural  increase  would  in  either  case  bring  the 
number  to  at  least  110,000  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  For  larger  esti- 
mates by  Ebeling  and  Governor  Thomas,  see  Hallesche  Nachrichten,  vol.  i,  p. 
462,  note  144. 


130  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

and  on  their  arrival  met  similar  conditions  in  the  Ameri- 
can colonies.  They  were  not  paupers,  though  a  great  many 
of  them,  to  pay  for  their  transportation,  were  compelled 
to  pledge  themselves  to  several  years  of  servitude.  They 
were  not  wealthy,  though  many  of  them  brought  with 
them  sums  of  money  that  they  had  realized  from  the  sale 
of  their  lands  at  home.  The  later  they  settled  in  Amer- 
ica the  farther  west  they  were  obliged  to  move,  not  being 
able  to  purchase  the  land  where  it  had  become  expensive, 
i.  e.,  along  the  coastline.  Therefore,  whether  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  York,  Maryland,  Virginia,  or  the  Carolinas, 
they  constantly  became  the  settlers  of  the  frontier,  which 
they  defended,  and  assisted  in  pushing  farther  and  farther 
to  the  westward.  The  German  settler  became  a  recosfuized 
type  of  frontiersman,  and  because  most  numerous  in  Penn- 
sylvania, or  most  frequently  coming  from  there,  he  received 
the  name  Pennsylvania  Dutch,  or  Pennsylvania  German. 
His  lanofuaofe  was  the  dialect  of  the  Palatinate  and  the 
Upper  Rhine,  mixed  with  a  large  number  of  common  Eng- 
lish words.  His  peculiarities  of  speech  and  customs  made 
him  distinct  from  the  other  colonial  types,  but  his  individ- 
uality was  marked  by  far  more  noteworthy  traits  of  char- 
acter. One  of  the  earliest  writers  on  the  subject  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Germans  was  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  the  noted 
Philadelphia  physician,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  surgeon  in  the  Revolutionary  Army, 
member  of  Congress,  treasurer  of  the  United  States  Mint, 
distinguished  essayist  on  medical,  social,  and  literary  top- 
ics. Dr.  Rush  was  a  keen  observer  and  possessed  a  judicial 
mind.  He  noticed  that  the  prosperity  of  Pennsylvania  was 
largely  due  to  the  Pennsylvania  Germans,  and  began  to 
examine  into  the  causes  of  their  success.  He  seems  con- 
sciously to  have  imitated  the  example  of  the  historian, 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        131 

Tacitus,  who  described  the  virtues  and  vices  of  the  ancient 
Germans,  perhaps  with  a  view  to  holding  them  up*  as  an 
example  for  his  own  people/  Dr.  Rush  wrote  what  might 
be  called  the  "Germania"  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans, 
giving  it  the  title :  "  An  Account  of  the  Manners  of  the 
German  Inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania,  Written  in  1789."  " 
The  author  enumerates  "a  few  particulars  (under  six- 
teen heads)  in  which  the  German  farmers  differ  from  most 
of  the  other  farmers  of  Pennsylvania."  No  better  charac- 
terization of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  has  ever  been  writ- 
ten than  that  of  Dr.  Rush,  and  his  little  essay,  covering 
about  twenty-five  pages,  is  a  classic  in  its  way,  certainly 
an  historical  document  to  be  treated  with  due  seriousness. 
The  following  are  his  sixteen  specifications  in  order :  — 

(1)  (Housing  horses  and  cattle.)  In  settling  a  tract  of  land 
the  Germans  always  provide  large  and  suitable  accommodations 
for  their  horses  and  cattle,  before  they  lay  out  much  money  in 
building  a  house  for  themselves.  The  next  generation  builds  a 
large  and  convenient  stone  house.  The  maxim  exists  among 
them  :  "  A  son  should  always  begin  his  improvements  where  his 
father  left  off."  The  Pennsylvania  German  farmer  has  even 
been  reproached  for  taking  better  care  of  his  stock  than  of  the 
members  of  his  family,^  but  certain  it  is  that  sleek  and  well-fed 

*  Scholars  of  to-day  have  generally  abandoned  the  theory  that  Tacitus 
had  an  ethical,  satirical,  or  political  purpose  in  the  Germania.  This,  however, 
does  not  affect  Dr.  Rush's  position,  who  had  been  brought  up  on  the  old 
theory.  Tacitus  wrote  on  a  subject  which  was  a  burning  question  of  the  day. 
His  view  was  pessimistic  as  to  many  phases  of  Roman  life,  and  he  welcomed 
an  opportunity  to  emphasize  what  he  considered  in  the  Germans  superior 
traits.  Similarly  Dr.  Rush. 

2  Notes  added  by  I.  D.  Rupp,  Philadelphia,  1875.  Published  also  among 
Benjamin  Rush's  Essays,  Literary,  Moral  and  Philosophical  (Philadelphia, 
1798),  pp.  225-248.  This  volume  also  contains  the  essay  bearing  partly  on 
the  subject  :  "  An  Account  of  the  Progress  of  Population,  Agriculture, 
Manners,  and  Government  in  Pennsylvania,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  England." 

^  Meyer,  Deutsche  Volkskunde,  p.  212,  cites  a  saying  of  German  peasants 
in  the  Palatinate  :  "Eine  gute  Kuh  deckt  viel  Armut  zu"  ;  also 

Weibersterbe  isch  ka  Verderbe  ! 
Aber  Gaulverrecke,  des  isch  e  Schrecke  I 


132  THE   GEKMAN   ELEMENT 

cattle  were  a  source  of  the  greatest  pride  to  him.  The  housing 
of  them  brought  far  better  results  than  leaving  them  to  run 
wild. 

(2)  (Good  land.)  "  They  always  prefer  good  land,  or  that 
land  on  which  there  is  a  large  quantity  of  meadow  ground.  By 
attention  to  the  cultivation  of  grass,  they  often  grow  rich  on 
farms,  on  which  their  predecessors  have  nearly  starved.  They 
prefer  purchasing  farms  with  some  improvements,  to  settling  on 
a  new  tract  of  land."  Rush  places  the  German  farmer  in  what 
he  calls  the  third  class  ^  of  settlers,  that  is,  the  permanent  kind. 
The  first  is  hardly  better  than  the  hunter  and  savage,  whose 
mode  of  life  he  has  adopted,  the  second  class  makes  a  few  shoddy 
improvements  on  the  land,  which  he  is  glad  to  leave  (going  west- 
ward) as  soon  as  civilization  draws  near.  The  question  of  the 
Germans'  selecting  good  land  is  one  frequently  discussed  since 
Dr.  Rush's  time.  It  is  quite  definitely  settled  that  the  Germans 
commonly  occupied  wooded  land  ;  ^  they  knew  that  where  there 
was  rich  forest  growth,  good  soil  was  to  be  found  underneath. 
The  Scotch-Irish  and  Irish  preferred  land  that  lay  along  navi- 
gable rivers,  or  such  as  was  well  watered,  which  was  generally 
not  as  fertile.  In  Pennsylvania  the  Germans  settled  mostly  on 
the  great  limestone  areas,  while  the  Irish  colonized  slate  forma- 
tions. This  process  of  settling  the  limestone  areas  the  Germans 
continued  throughout    Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia 

*  See  Rush's  essay  already  cited  :  "  An  Account  of  the  Progress  of  Pop- 
ulation, etc.,  in  Pennsylvania,"  Essays  (1798),  pp.  213-220. 

^  In  the  West  a  similar  tendency  is  apparent.  The  Germans  in  Wisconsin 
have  extensively  settled  in  the  wooded  sections,  leaving  the  prairies  for 
Americans.  They  had  harder  work  and  a  slower  rise,  while  the  Americans 
could  cultivate  larger  areas  and  get  quicker  and  larger  returns.  But  the 
Americans  more  quickly  drained  the  resources  of  the  land,  prairie  land  being 
sooner  exhausted,  while  the  Germans,  with  their  slower  and  more  even  pro- 
gress, could  at  a  later  day  get  more  steady  yields  from  their  smaller  farms. 
The  scorn  of  the  native  American,  accustomed  to  luxurious  living,  gave 
place  to  envy  of  his  successful  competitor,  the  frugal  German  farmer. 
Instead  of  the  mortgaged  farm,  the  German  farmer  in  Wisconsin  steadily 
grows  on  capital  that  he  develops  slowly  by  his  own  industry.  It  is  again 
the  story  of  the  evolution  of  the  stone  house,  built  by  the  next  generation. 
Cf.  Emil  Rothe,  Der  deutscke  Pionier,  vol.  ii,  p.  53. 


THE   GERMANS   IN   PENNSYLVANIA        133 

(the  Shenandoah  Valley),  and,  as  will  be  seen  also,  in  the  Blue 
Grass  region  of  Kentucky.  The  limestone  areas  contain  the 
most  fertile  soil,  and  the  Germans  developed  it  to  its  fullest  ex- 
tent. 

(3)  (Methods  of  clearing  land.)  "  In  clearing  new  land  they 
do  not  girdle  or  belt  the  trees  simply,  and  leave  them  to  perish 
in  the  ground,  as  is  the  custom  of  their  English  or  Irish  neigh- 
bors ;  but  they  generally  cut  them  down  and  burn  them."  Under- 
wood and  bushes  they  would  pull  out  by  the  roots,  "  grub  them 
out  of  the  ground."  The  advantage  was  that  the  land  was  as  fit 
for  cultivation  the  second  year  as  in  twenty  years  afterward. 
The  expense  of  repairing  a  plow,  often  broken  by  small  stumps 
concealed  in  the  ground,  is  greater  than  grubbing  the  field  com- 
pletely at  the  first  clearing. 

(4)  (Good  feeding.)  They  feed  their  horses  and  cows  well, 
thereby  practicing  economy,  for  such  animals  perform  twice  the 
labor  or  give  twice  the  yield  of  the  less  well  fed.  "  A  German 
horse  is  known  in  every  part  of  the  state.  Indeed,  he  seems  to 
feel  with  his  lord  the  pleasure  and  pride  of  his  extraordinary 
size  and  fat." 

(5)  (Fences.)  "The  fences  of  a  German  farm  are  generally 
hiffh  and  well  built  so  that  his  fields  seldom  suffer  from  the  in- 
roads  of  his  own  or  his  neighbor's  horses  or  cattle."  This  is  a 
mark  of  the  German's  adaptability.  He  was  not  accustomed  to 
fences  at  home,  but  saw  their  usefulness  in  the  new  country 
where  there  was  no  scarcity  of  wood,  but  scarcity  of  labor,  i.  e., 
of  men  to  watch  cattle. 

(6)  (Use  of  wood.)  "  The  German  farmers  are  great  econ- 
omists of  their  wood."  They  do  not  waste  it  in  large  fireplaces, 
but  burn  it  in  stoves,  using  about  one  fourth  to  one  fifth  as  much. 
They  thus  save  their  horses  the  great  labor  of  hauling  wood 
in  midwinter,  which  so  often  unfits  them  for  spring  plowing. 
Their  houses  are  very  comfortable  with  their  large  stoves  ^  in 

'  These  large  stoves  were  patterned  after  the  German  "  Kachelofen." 
Undoubtedly  many  were  imported,  but  later  they  were  made  in  this  country, 
e.  g.,  by  Baron  Stiegel.  As  a  result  of  the  use  of  stoves,  the  German-built 
bouse  commonly  had  one  chimney  from  the  middle  of  the  roof,  wliile  the 
English  or  other  houses  had  two  chimneys,  one  at  either  end  of  the  roof. 


134  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

the  centre  of  the  room,  around  which  the  family  can  get  a  more 
equal  chance  than  when  burning  their  faces  and  freezing  their 
backs  before  the  fireplaces.  Dr.  Rush  believed  that  habits  of 
industry,  e.  g.,  spinning  and  repairing  farm  utensils  were  encour- 
aged in  this  way.  He  also  mentions  that  the  Germans  frequently 
protected  their  trees  with  a  view  to  saving  their  wood,  putting 
fences  around  them,^  or  letting  saplings  grow  for  later  useful- 
ness, and  in  general  giving  attention  to  the  principles  of  forestry. 

(7)  (Comfort  of  cattle.)  "  They  keep  their  horses  and  cattle 
as  warm  as  possible  in  winter,  by  which  they  save  feed,  for 
those  animals  when  they  are  cold  eat  much  more  than  when 
they  are  more  comfortable." 

(8)  (Economy.)  "  The  Germans  live  frugally  in  their  homes 
with  respect  to  diet,  furniture  and  dress."  They  sell  the  profit- 
able grain,  which  is  wheat,  and  eat  the  rye  and  corn,  thus  sav- 
ing what  is  equal  to  the  price  of  a  farm  for  one  of  the  children. 
They  eat  sparingly  of  boiled  meat,  but  large  quantities  of  all 
kinds  of  vegetables.  They  use  few  distilled  spirits  (whiskey 
and  rum)  in  their  families,  preferring  cider,  beer,  wine,  and  sim- 
ple water.  Their  feather  beds  and  homespun  garments  are  like- 
wise economical.  When  they  use  European  ai'ticles  of  dress, 
they  prefer  those  of  best  quality  and  highest  price.  They  are 
afraid  of  debt,  and  seldom  purchase  anything  without  paying 
cash  for  it. 

(9)  (Gardens.)  Kitchen  gardening  the  Germans  introduced 
altogether.  Their  gardens  contained  useful  vegetables  at  every 
season  of  the  year.  Turnips  and  cabbage  at  one  time  were  the 
principal  vegetables  in  Philadelphia.  A  greater  variety  was 
brought  in  by  the  German  gardeners  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Philadelphia,  "  and  to  the  use  of  these  vegetables  in  diet  may  be 
ascribed  the  general  exemption  of  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia 
from  diseases  of  the  skin."  (The  testimony  of  an  experienced 
physician  is  extremely  valuable  on  this  point.)  "  Pennsylvania 
is  indebted  to  the  Germans  for  the  principal  part  of  her  know- 

'  Large  trees  were  often  kept  in  pasture  land  to  afford  shade  for  the 
cattle,  cool  retreats  to  escape  from  the  sun's  heat.  The  fence  served  to  pro- 
tect the  tree  from  the  cattle. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        135 

ledge  in  horticulture."  Though  Dr.  Rush  apparently  means  a 
particular  branch  of  horticulture,  the  raising  of  vegetables,  we 
find  from  other  sources  that  the  Germans  planted  orchards 
in  abundance  (e.  g.,  apples  in  Schoharie),  and  that  they  were 
very  fond  of  planting  flowers  on  the  edges  of  their  gardens  and 
houses. 

(10)  (Few  hired  men.)  The  Germans  seldom  hire  men  to 
work  upon  their  farms.  The  wives  and  daughters  of  the  German 
farmers  frequently  forsake  for  a  while  their  dairy  and  spinning- 
wheel  and  join  with  their  husbands  and  brothers  in  the  labor  of 
the  fields.^  The  work  of  the  gardens  is  generally  done  by  the 
women  of  the  family.  Hired  help  was  procured  only  in  harvest 
time.  Slaves  were  particularly  objectionable  to  the  Germans, 
because  the  latter  did  their  own  work  and  thus  would  be  com- 
pelled to  work  side  by  side  with  a  race  instinctively  repulsive  to 
them. 

(11)  (Wagons.)  "  A  large  and  strong  wagon  covered  with 
linen  cloth  is  an  essential  part  of  the  furniture  of  a  German 
farm.  In  this  wagon,  drawn  by  four  or  five  large  horses  of  a 
peculiar  breed,  they  convey  to  market  over  the  roughest  roads 
2000  or  3000  pounds  of  produce.  In  September  and  October 
on  the  Lancaster  and  Reading  roads  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  to 
meet  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  of  these  wagons  on  their  way 
to  Philadelphia,  most  of  which  belong  to  German  farmers." 
The  breed  of  horses  referred  to  is  probably  the  heavy  stock 
called  sometimes  the  Conestoga  horses,^  and  the  wagon  the 
famous  Conestoga  wagon,  "  the  ship  of  inland  commerce."  These 
wagons  are  described  in  the  county  histories  of  Pennsylvania  as 
of  a  particular  pattern.  The  body  of  the  wagon  was  built  strong 
but  not  clumsy,  was  painted  blue  and  mounted  upon  sturdy 
wheels,  painted  red,  masterpieces  of  the  wheelwright's  art.  A 
cover  of  white  linen  was  drawn  tightly  over  the  arched  frame- 
work of  the  top,  lower  near  the  middle  and  projecting  like  a 
bonnet  in  front  and  at  the  back.  The  horses  were  equipped  with 

1  Cf.  Whittier's  poem,  "  Maud  Muller." 

2  Derived  and  improved  from  a  stock  brought  over  by  English  immi- 
grants. —  Note  by  Rupp. 


136  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

good  harness,  sometimes  with  sleigh-bells,^  and  were  invariably 
possessed  of  sleek  skins  and  round  bodies.  The  railroads  ended 
the  regime  of  the  Conestoga  wagons  in  the  East,  but  then  they 
gained  a  new  life  under  the  name  of  "  prairie  schooner,"  the 
vehicle  of  overland  passage  that  carried  untold  numbers  of 
pioneers  across  the  western  deserts.^ 

(12)  (Children.)  "  The  favorable  influence  of  agriculture,  as 
conducted  by  the  Germans,  in  extending  the  most  happiness,  is 
manifested  by  the  joy  expressed  at  the  birth  of  a  child.  No 
dread  of  poverty  or  distrust  of  Providence  from  an  increasing 
family  depress  the  spirits  of  this  industrious  and  frugal  people." 
As  elsewhere  on  the  frontier  the  birth  of  a  child  meant  a  helper, 
and  as  the  children  became  of  age  they  wandered  westward  and 
built  homes  of  their  own,  being  no  care  to  their  parents. 

(13)  (Love  of  labor.)  "  Germans  produced  in  their  children 
not  only  the  habits  of  labor  but  a  love  of  it.  When  a  young 
man  asks  the  consent  of  his  father  to  marry  the  girl  of  his  choice, 
he  does  not  inquire  so  much  whether  she  be  rich  or  poor,  or 
whether  she  possess  any  personal  or  mental  accomplishments, 
but  whether  she  be  industrious,  and  acquainted  with  the  duties 
of  a  good  housewife."  Rupp  in  his  notes  gives  a  number  of 
proverbs  ilhistrative  of  the  consequences  of  idleness,^  etc. 

(14)  (Patrimony.)  "  The  Germans  set  a  great  value  upon 
patrimonial  property."  The  idea  prevails  that  a  house  and  home 
should  be  possessed  by  a  succession  of  generations.  This  had 
the  effect  of  making  an  estate  a  matter  of  famil}'^  pride,  and  we 
shall  see  later  that  the  Germans  elsewhere,  for  instance  in  Mis- 
souri, always  kept  their  land  in  the  family. 

(15)  (Superstition.)  "  The  German  farmers  are  very  much 
influenced  in  planting  and  pruning  trees,  also  in  sowing  and 
reaping,  by  the  age  and  appearances  of  the  moon."  Of  course 

*  They  were  often  tuned  in  harmony,  the  rear  horses  carrying  bells  of 
lower  pitch,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  forward  pair. 

'  Ellis  and  Evans's  History  of  Lancaster  County,  p.  350.  Also,  Americana 
Germanica,  vol.  v,  p.  1  ;  an  illustration  of  the  Conestoga  wagon  is  there  given. 
'  e.  g.,  "Miissiggang  ist  des  Teufels  Ruhebank." 

"  Wie  einer  den  Zaun  hiilt,  halt  er  auch  das  Gut." 
"  Mit  Futtern  ist  keine  Zeit  verlorn." 


THE   GERMANS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA        137 

this  was  a  matter  of  superstition,  but  Dr.  Rush  believes  that  it 
resulted  in  their  giving  close  attention  to  the  climate  of  the 
country,  and  therefore  was  an  aid  to  success.  The  Pennsylvania 
Germans  were  as  careful  as  seamen  in  observing  the  position  of 
the  heavenly  spheres  and  the  signs  of  the  seasons.  They  con- 
sulted the  mystics,^  or  other  people  believed  to  possess  occult 
power.  The  divining-rod  was  expected  to  show  them  the  pre- 
sence of  water  in  the  ground,  and  old  women  with  the  reputation 
of  witches  (they  were  never  burned)  furnished  talismans,  incan- 
tations, and  magic  formulas.  The  different  phases  of  the  moon 
were  carefully  observed  in  the  almanac,  for  planting  was  better 
done  in  the  waxing  of  the  moon  than  in  the  waning.  The  moon 
in  the  sign  of  the  twins  made  the  best  time  for  sowing.  Not  only 
sowing  and  planting,  but  slaughtering  and  building  were  care- 
fully planned  with  reference  to  mysterious  influences.  Even 
more  curious  were  their  magic  arts  of  healing,  and  concerning 
these  Dr.  Rush,  the  physician,  could  not  repress  some  words  of 
complaint.  But  in  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  German 
frontiersmen  were  not  worse  than  their  contemporaries  elsewhere, 
they  were  not  as  fanatical  as  the  witch-burners,  nor  was  their 
folklore  more  extravagant  than  in  other  sections  of  the  country. 
(16)  (Barns.)  "  A  German  farm  may  be  distinguished  from 
the  farms  of  the  other  citizens  of  the  state  by  the  superior  size 
of  their  barns,^  the  plain  but  compact  form  of  their  houses,  the 
height  of  their  enclosures,  the  extent  of  their  orchards,  the  fer- 

*  See  Chapter  ii,  p.  50. 

*  The  Pennsylvania  German  barn  (sometimes  called  the  "  Swisser"barn) 
is  recognizable  in  all  localities  where  the  German  farmers  have  settled.  It  is 
of  a  peculiar  type,  largely  imitated  from  that  used  in  their  European  home. 
The  following  is  a  description  in  detail  :  "  They  are  two  stories  high,  with 
pitched  roof,  sufficiently  large  and  strong  to  enable  heavy  farm-teams  to 
drive  into  the  upper  story  to  load  or  unload  grain.  During  the  first  period 
they  were  bnilt  mostly  of  logs,  afterward  of  stone,  frame,  or  brick,  from  60 
to  120  feet  long,  and  from  50  to  60  feet  wide,  the  lower  story,  containing  the 
stables,  with  feeding  passages,  opening  on  the  front.  The  upper  story  was 
made  to  project  8  or  10  feet  over  the  lower  in  front,  or  with  a  forebay  at- 
tached to  shelter  the  entries  to  the  stables  and  passageways.  It  contained 
the  threshing-floors,  mows,  and  lofts  for  the  storing  of  hay  and  grain.  The 
most  complete  barns  of  the  present  day  have  in  addition  a  granary  on  the 


138  THE  GEKMAN  ELEMENT 

tility  of  their  fields,  the  luxuriance  of  their  meadows,  all  of 
which  have  a  general  appearance  of  plenty  and  neatness  in 
everything  that  belongs  to  them." 

The  opinion  of  Rush  agrees  with  other  contemporary 
accounts,  and  also  with  that  of  subsequent  European  trav- 
elers, such  as  Bernhard  of  Saxe-Weimar  and  others.  They 
affirm  the  superiority  of  the  German  farmers  over  the  agri- 
culturists of  other  nationalities.  The  significance  of  this 
superiority  should  not  be  overlooked.  Professor  F.  J.  Tur- 
ner '  says  :  "  The  limestone  farms  of  the  Germans  became 
the  wheat  granary  of  the  country."  In  the  year  1751  there 
were  exported  86,000  bushels  of  wheat,  129,960  barrels  of 
flour,  90,743  bushels  of  Indian  corn.  The  total  exports  of 
1751  exceeded  in  value  one  million  dollars.^  An  interest- 
ing account  of  the  milling  industry  of  Lancaster  County, 
the  very  core  of  the  great  farming  country  of  Pennsylvania, 
can  be  seen  in  an  article  based  on  researches  on  the  spot 
by  G.  D.  Luetscher.^  By  the  time  the  Revolutionary  War 
began,  the  yield  of  the  Pennsylvania  farms  was  enough 
to  feed  the  American  and  French  armies  duringf  the  en- 
tire  period  of  the  war.  Indeed,  the  Pennsylvania  German 

upper  floor,  a  cellar  under  the  driving-way,  a  corn-crib  and  shed,  wagon  with 
horse-power  shed  attached."  See  Kuhns,  pp.  94,  95,  who  quotes  this  pass- 
age from  Ellis  and  Evans's  History  of  Lancaster  County,  p.  348. 

Professor  M.  D.  Learned  has  made  extensive  investigations  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Pennsylvania  German  barns,  and  has  given  his  results  in  a  number 
of  illustrated  lectures,  to  be  published  under  the  title:  "The  German  Barn 
in  America." 

1  Studies  of  American  Immigration,  by  Frederick  Jackson  Turner,  in  the 
Record-Herald's  "  Current  Topics  Club,"  Record-Herald,  Chicago,  August  28 
and  September  4,  1901,  "  German  Immigration  in  the  Colonial  Period." 

^  Rupp's  notes  to  Rush's  Manners  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans. 

'  G.  D.  Luetscher,  "  Industries  of  Pennsylvania  after  the  Adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  with  special  reference  to  Lancaster  and  York  Coun- 
ties," Americana  Germanica,  vol.  v  {German-American  Antials,  i),  pp.  135- 
155,  and  pp.  197-208. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        139 

baker,  Christoph  Ludwig,  who  provided  all  the  bread  for 
the  patriot  army,  drew  his  supplies  of  grain  directly  from 
the  Pennsylvania  German  farms.  Dr.  Rush  says  the  Penn- 
sylvania farms  produced  millions  of  dollars,  which  after 
1780  made  possible  the  foundation  of  the  Bank  of  North 
America  (chartered  1781).  Besides  the  cultivation  of  sta- 
ples, the  German  farmers  raised  crops  of  a  varied  kind, 
disposing  of  the  surplus  in  neighboring  large  cities.  As 
Turner  says,  it  was  a  necessary  step  in  the  development 
of  the  industrial  self-dependence  of  the  United  States. 

Pennsylvania  German  colonists,  though  for  the  most 
part  farmers,  were  also  noted  as  mechanics.  Of  them  Dr, 
Rush  says:  "Their  first  object  is  to  become  freeholders; 
and  hence  we  find  few  of  them  live  in  rented  houses. 
The  highest  compliment  that  can  be  paid  to  them  on  en- 
tering their  house  is  to  ask  them,  'Is  this  house  your 
own?'  They  are  industrious,  frugal,  punctual,  and  just." 
They  adapt  themselves  to  new  conditions  and  retain  the 
arts  they  brought  from  Germany.  There  were  also  mer- 
chants in  the  coast  cities  that  acquired  great  wealth  by 
foreign  and  domestic  commerce.  "The  Bank  of  North 
America  has  witnessed,"  says  Rush,  "from  its  first  insti- 
tution, their  fidelity  to  all  their  pecuniary  engagements." 
A  few  additional  traits  are  mentioned  by  Dr.  Rush.  With 
his  model,  the  "Germania"  of  Tacitus,  in  mind,  he  speaks 
a  word  concerning  hospitality,  giving  an  instance  where 
the  host  would  not  accept  pay  for  board  and  lodging, 
because  he  had  himself  on  some  occasion  been  treated 
thus  kindly  before,  saying:  "Do  you  pay  your  debt  to 
me  in  the  same  way  to  somebody  else."  The  Germans, 
according  to  Dr.  Rush,  were  little  addicted  to  so-called 
"feeding  parties,"  by  which  we  are  to  understand,  no 
doubt,  such  feasting  as  Mrs.  Trollope  described  in  her 


140  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

"Domestic  Manners  of  the  Americans."*  In  spite  of  Dr. 
Rush,  we  know  from  numerous  other  sources  that  the 
Germans,  as  well  as  their  neighbors  in  agricultural  com- 
munities, were  given  to  holding  frolics,  log-rollings,  quilt- 
ing parties,  and  husking-bees,  to  cider-  and  apple-butter- 
making  in  social  cooperation,  and  we  know  that  drinking 
and  gorging  were  also  indulged  in  beyond  the  canons 
of  good  taste  and  health,  at  weddings  and  funerals.  The 
Reverend  H.M.  Miihlenberg  regrets  that  the  latter  ancient 
Teutonic  custom  was  brouo^ht  over  to  the  New  AVorld. 
In  regard  to  their  customs  in  general,  we  may  accept  Dr. 
Rush's  criticism  of  the  entire  people  of  his  own  state,  and 
let  it  apply  also  to  the  Pennsylvania  Germans:  "If  they 
possess  less  refinement  than  their  Southern  neighbors, 
who  cultivate  their  land  with  slaves,  they  possess  also 
more  Republican  virtue."^ 

As  manufacturers,  the  Germans  of  Pennsylvania  like- 
wise made  distinct  contributions.  The  weavers  of  German- 
town  gave  their  industry  firm  root  on  American  soil,  while 
the  establishment  of  the  first  paper-mill  in  the  country 
was  likewise  an  achievement  of  Germantown.  Grist-  and 
saw-mills  ground  and  groaned,  wherever  Germans  turned 
the  sod.  Glass-blowing  and  iron  manufactures  were  also 
introduced  by  the  Germans  as  early  as  colonial  conditions 
would  allow. 

Abitof  romance  clino^s  to  the  establishment  of  the  first 
iron  foundry,  by  Baron  Stiegel.  He  was  by  no  means  the 
vain  and  erratic  dreamer  or  the  adventurer  he  is  frequently 
represented  to  have  been.  Little  is  known  of  his  early 
career.  He  seems  to  have  been  sent  to  America  on  his  own 
request  by  well-to-do  relatives,  who  were  glad  to  get  rid 

'  Though  her  descriptions  of  the  frontier  are  of  a  much  later  date  (1832), 
still  customs  are  conservative.  Cf.  e.  g.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  129-132. 
2  Rush,  Essays,  Literary,  Moral,  and  Philosophical,  p.  220. 


THE  GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        141 

of  him.  He  possessed  a  genial  mind,  his  ruHng  passion 
being  to  embark  in  grand  enterprises.  Arriving  in 
Philadelphia,  the  repose  of  the  Quaker  City  was  not  in 
accordance  with  his  temperament.  He  journeyed  to  Lan- 
caster, whence  he  drifted  to  Ephrata.  Miiller  and  Beissel 
received  him  kindly,  and  finding  that  he  was  interested 
in  iron,  told  him  to  go  to  Schaferstadtel,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  which  iron  ore  had  been  found.  Stiegel,  accom- 
panied by  his  faithful  body-servant,  Jacob  of  Ettenheim, 
found  the  place,  returned  to  Philadelphia  for  more  capital 
and  laborers,  and  soon  established  an  iron  foundry  that 
gave  him  a  limited  amount  of  credit.  According  to  one 
account,  he  had  some  means  himself,  having  come  from 
Europe  supplied  with  "much  money  and  good  recommenda- 
tions." It  was  about  1758  when  he  founded  Mannheim 
in  Lancaster  County,  laying  it  out  after  the  checkerboard 
plan  of  his  native  city.  He  named  his  works  the  Elizabeth 
Iron  Foundry  and  Smelters,  in  honor  of  his  wife.  The  town 
rose  as  if  by  magic  ;  a  smithy,  a  wagon-factory,  and,  most 
important  of  all,  a  factory  for  stoves,  were  all  built  near 
the  foundry.  Iron  plates  for  stoves  were  manufactured  in 
great  numbers  and  the  stoves  of  Stiegel  brought  high 
prices.  They  are  said  to  have  borne  the  inscription : 

"  Baron  Stiegel  ist  der  Mann 
Der  die  Oefen  giessen  kann."  ' 

Another  great  achievement  of  Stiegel  was  the  founding 
of  his  glassworks,  by  which  he  astonished  both  Germans 
and  Americans,  and  which,  it  was  rumored,  yielded  him 
annually  five  thousand  pounds. 

*  L.  A.  Wollenweber  claims  to  have  seen  one  of  these  stoves  a  century 
later  (shortly  before  1870),  with  its  inscription,  in  Lebanon,  Pennsylvania. 
Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ii,  p.  28.  See  also,  for  an  account  of  Baron 
Heinrich  Wilhelm  Stiegel,  ihid.,  vol.  xii,  pp.  82-87;  and  Pennsylvania  Maga- 
zine of  History  and  Biography,  vol.  i,  pp.  07  3. 


142  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

The  indulgence  of  some  of  his  extravagant  tastes  made 
Baron  Stiegel  a  unique  figure  among  the  German  colo- 
nists, inured  as  they  were  to  plain  living.  About  a  mile 
from  Schiiferstadtel,  on  a  high  hill  commanding  a  view 
of  the  whole  region,  he  built  a  castle  with  a  watch-tower. 
The  story  goes,  that  a  cannon-shot  announced  the  mas- 
ter's arrival  or  departure  ;  two  shots,  the  coming  of  visitors ; 
and  a  band  of  music,  trained  from  among  the  musically 
gifted  of  his  laborers,^  greeted  his  guests  at  meals,  while 
Rhenish  and  French  wines  and  hunting-parties  were  not 
lacking  for  their  entertainment.  These  eccentricities  were, 
of  course,  derived  from  his  birth  and  early  environment. 

The  Baron's  ambitious  ventures  were  doomed  to  ulti- 
mate failure.  The  moralizing  age  in  which  he  lived  gen- 
erally attributed  the  failure  to  his  extravagant  habits,  but 
by  looking  a  bit  more  deeply  into  the  matter,  we  cannot  but 
arrive  at  a  more  favorable  view.  Baron  Stiegel  spent  much 
money,  but  he  made  much  also.  Most  of  his  factories 
were  successful  and  brought  him  good  returns.  The  great 
mistake  which  he  made  was  to  purchase  the  land  interests 
of  Stedman,  who  held  two  thirds  of  the  land  in  Mannheim, 
against  one  third  originally  held  by  Stiegel,  the  latter 
having  invested  most  of  his  money  in  the  factories.  This 
immense  real  estate  speculation  must  have  deprived  the 
factories  of  the  necessary  working  capital.  Stiegel' s  faith 
in  the  continued  prosperity  of  Mannheim  would,  in  course 
of  time,  have  been  rewarded,  had  not  another  unforeseen 
event  occurred.  It  was  the  Revolutionary  War,  and,  worse 
than  that,  the  numerous  precedent  tyrannical  measures  of 
the  British  Parliament  which  ruined  the  commerce  and  in- 

^  The  German  army  has  no  trouble  in  equipping  its  musical  corps  from 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  German  soldiers.  Dr.  Rush  comments  upon  the 
"  strong  propensity  for  vocal  and  instrumental  music  among  the  Germans  of 
both  sexes."  "  Manners  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans,"  Essays,  p.  239. 


THE   GERMANS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA        143 

dustries  of  the  colonies.  No  one  was  hit  harder  than  Baron 
Stiegel,  especially  since  he  had  purchased  the  entire  pro- 
perty in  Mannheim  at  a  high  figure.  He  writes  appealing 
letters  to  his  lawyers,  pleading  for  time,  and  speaks  grate- 
fully of  the  successful  attempts  of  his  wife,  who  more  than 
once  influenced  his  creditors  to  wait.  In  letters  to  the 
Honorable  Jaspar  Yates  he  pleads  in  pathetic  language 
(though  a  foreigner's  English)  for  help  and  influence  to 
weather  the  storm,  the  burden  of  his  letters  being,  "If 
I  am  given  time  I  will  pay  every  debt."  And  finally  he 
cries  in  despair :  "  Can  it  be  possible  that  my  former 
friends  in  Lancaster  wish  to  drive  me  to  ruin,  when  I  have 
increased  the  wealth  of  the  country  at  least  150,000 
pounds  ! "  All  the  letters  *  were  written  in  the  autumn  of 
1774,  showing  that  his  final  difficulties  came  in  the  storms 
of  the  Revolutionary  outbreak,  and  inducing  us  to  believe 
that,  had  not  uncommon  occurrences  prevented,  he  would 
have  met  all  his  obligations  and  made  real  his  beautiful 
dream.  The  family  of  Stiegel  became  destitute,  and  he  him- 
self died  in  great  poverty,  it  is  not  definitely  known  how 
or  where,  probably  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  smelters. 
Stories  are  told  of  a  debtor's  prison  and  death  by  starva- 
tion, but  these  seem  legendary.  Speculators  in  Philadel- 
phia who  purchased  the  works  at  Mannheim  at  a  low  figure, 
undoubtedly  reaped  the  benefit  of  Stiegel's  ventures,  so 
well  begun. 

Another  industry  in  which  the  Germans  were  very  act- 
ive was  that  of  printing,  and  most  famous  of  all  was  the 
printing-press  of  Sauer,  in  Germantown.  His  was  in  fact 
a  publishing-house  for  two  generations,  established  in 
1738  and  lasting  for  forty  years,  until  the  war  put  an  end 
to  it.  One  hundred  and  fifty  books  or  pamphlets  and  three 

*  The  letters  were  reprinted  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  sdi,  pp.  85-87. 


144  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

quarto  editions  of  the  German  Bible  were  published  by 
Christopher  Sauer  and  his  son.  The  honor  of  printing  the 
first  German  books  in  America  belongs  to  Benjamin 
Franklin  ;  *  Sauer  was  the  first,  however,  to  use  the  German 
type.  Christopher  Sauer  was  born  in  Laasphe  (Wittgenstein, 
Prussia)  in  1693.  He  left  Germany  for  religious  reasons, 
coming  to  America  with  his  wife  and  son  in  1724.  For 
some  time  a  farmer  in  Lancaster  County,  he  subsequently 
settled  in  Germantown,  and  there  established  his  press,  im- 
porting all  of  his  materials  from  Germany.  His  High  Ger- 
man Calendar  was  issued  in  1738  and  appeared  regularly 
thereafter.  In  the  next  year  he  received  an  important 
order  to  print  a  hymn-book  for  the  monks  of  Ephrata, 
with  the  pompous  title :  "  Zionitischer  Weyrauch-Hiigel 
oder  Myrrhen-Berg,"  820  pages.  Difficulties  soon  arose 
between  Sauer  and  Beissel,  the  two  devout  religionists. 
Sauer  began  to  write  in  a  satirical  manner,  comparing 
the  monk  to  the  apocalyptic  beast,  commenting  upon  his 
virtues,  derived  from  all  of  the  planets :  from  Mars,  sever- 
ity ;  from  Venus,  power  to  attract  the  fair  sex  (a  reference 
to  Sauer's  wife,  who  ran  away  from  home  and  lived  in  the 
monastery  at  Ephrata  as  Sister  Marcella) ;  from  Mercury, 
his  clownish  tricks.  Beissel  revenged  himself  by  getting 
his  books  printed  in  Germany,  or  Philadelphia,  afterwards 
setting  up  his  own  printing-press. 

The  greatest  product  of  Sauer's  press  (or  of  the  entire 
colonial  press)  was  the  printing  of  the  Lutheran  Bible  in 
German,  with  1272  pages,  quarto  form.  As  the  preface 
stated,  it  was  the  first  edition  of  the  Scriptures  printed  in 


^  Franklin  furnished  three  volumes  of  mystical  songs  in  German  for  Con- 
rad Beissel,  1730-36.  The  Gotiliche  Liehes  und  Lobesgethone,  1730,  is  note- 
worthy, because  Benjamin  Franklin's  name  as  a  printer  appears  on  it  for  the 
first  time  without  the  name  of  his  partner,  Meredith. 


BIBLJA, 


UtimhMmi 


tUmm, 


.  Harfin  ^tt^Jtr^, 

9Ji\t   itki   miMi   tur|en    ©ummaricii;  au* 

%ea(i  tinm  Wnf)am 

©eg  Mttm  lm^  t)«rten  Su*^  &td  m  ba 

ftiifrcn   ^uc^   ttt  SJtaccaMfr. 


KtutantoiDn: 

©ebnitft  ki)  Itferiftopft  ^mi  1743. 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  SAUER  BIBLE  OF   1743 


I 
Of       (£' 


THE   GERMANS   IN  PENNSYLVANIA        145 

the  Western  Hemisphere  in  a  European  language.*  The 
excellent  paper  of  the  edition  came  from  the  paper-mill 
of  Rittenhouse  in  Germantown  ;  the  types  were  imported 
from  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  This  first  edition  appeared 
in  the  summer  of  1743,  a  second  edition  in  1763,  and  a 
third  in  1776.  In  addition  to  these,  Sauer  printed  the 
New  Testament  and  Psalter  in  separate  editions,  and  any 
number  of  hymn-books  for  the  various  sects  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. Most  influential  of  all  was  the  newspaper  which 
he  printed,  entitled  :  "  Der  Hoch-Deutsch  Pennsylvanische 
Geschicht-Schreiber,  oder  Sammlung  wichtiger  Nachrich- 
ten  aus  dem  Natur-  und  Kirchen-Reich,"  a  name  that  was 
altered  several  times.  At  first  the  journal  appeared  month- 
ly, then  semi-monthly,  and  from  1773  on  weekly,  without 
a  rise  in  price,  while  the  size  was  constantly  increased. 
The  newspaper  was  sold  not  only  in  Pennsylvania,  but  also 
in  the  Carolinas,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Georgia.  It 
supported  Sauer's  principles,  the  pacific  policy  of  the  Quak- 
ers, and  was  generally  opposed,  as  already  indicated,  to 
the  militancy  of  Miihlenberg  and  Schlatter.  Sauer  also 
established  a  book-bindery  and  paper-mill,  and  manufac- 
tured printer's  ink  and  types,  the  latter  being  the  first 
attempt  in  America.  The  younger  Sauer  was  accused  of 
being  a  Tory,  and  therefore  his  whole  estate  was  confis- 
cated. This  was  unjust  to  him,^  though  two  sons  of  his 
(Christoph  and  Peter)  did  establish  a  Tory  newspaper  ^  (in 

'  Only  once  before  had  a  Bible  been  printed  in  America  ;  it  was  the  New 
Testament  in  the  Indian  language  for  the  converted  Indians  of  Eliot  in 
Massachusetts.  No  Bible  had  been  printed  in  the  English  language  in  the 
colonies  before  the  German  Bible  of  1743.  A  copy  of  the  Sauer  Bible,  in 
any  edition,  is  now  regarded  as  a  rare  treasure. 

2  Cf.  Seidensticker,  jBiVrfer,  etc.,  pp.  158-166,  "Christoph  Saur,  der  Jiing- 
ere,  und  die  amerikanische  Revolution." 

3  A  number  of  this  paper,  May  6,  1778,  is  reprinted  in  Schlozer's  Brief' 
wechsel,  vol.  iii,  pp.  260-267.  Gottingen,  1878.  See  Chapter  xi. 


146  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

German)  in  Philadelphia,  when  General  Howe  occupied 
the  city. 

There  were  other  printing-presses  that  followed  Sauer's. 
That  at  Ephrata  for  the  most  part  printed  religious  litera- 
ture. In  Philadelphia  Joseph  Crell  printed  a  German 
newspaper  in  1743,  which  did  not  live  long.  He  was 
followed  by  the  Armbriisters  (1746)  and  Johann  Bohm. 
Bohm  had  been  associated  with  Franklin  in  printing 
Johann  Arndt's  "  Sechs  BUcher  vom  Wahren  Christen- 
thum"  (8vo,  1388pp.),  a  book  which,  next  to  the  Bible,  was 
read  most  by  the  German  immigrants.  Heinrich  Miiller 
(Miller),  from  1760,  was  for  twenty  years  the  best  German 
printer  and  publisher  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  the  printer 
of  Congress,  and  published  a  large  number  of  books  in 
the  English  language.  In  1762  he  founded  the  "  Phila- 
delphischer  Staatsbote,"  first  a  weekly  and  then  a  semi- 
weekly  paper.  He  apparently  sold  out,  in  1776,  to  the 
German  firm  Steiner  and  Cist,  who  represented  the  Re- 
volutionary doctrines.  Thomas  Paine's  "  The  Crisis"  was 
issued  by  their  press,*  and  Cist,  in  1776,  started  the  "  Co- 
lumbian Magazine."  Steiner  paid  more  attention  to  his 
German  newspaper,  "  Philadelphia  Correspondenz."  All 
these  German  printers  fled  from  Philadelphia  during  the 
English  occupation,  but  returned  immediately  afterwards. 
Before  the  close  of  the  century  there  were  also  German 
presses  in  Lancaster,  Reading,  and  Easton.  "  Der  Reading 
Adler,"  a  weekly  newspaper,  started  in  1796,  is  still  in 
existence. 

The  Pennsylvania  Germans  have  frequently  suffered  the 
rebuke  of  beino"  nesflectful  in  matters  of  education.  It  was 
a  charge  made  during  nativistic  epochs,  and  has  made  by 

'  They  printed  a  German  edition  of  Paine's  Common  Sense,  and  were  the 
first  printers  of  The  Crisis  in  English. 


THE   GERMANS   IN   PENNSYLVANIA        147 

far  too  strong  an  impression.  The  main  origin  of  the 
charge  was  the  tenacity  with  which  Germans  held  to  their 
own  language  and  customs.  The  German  settlers  brought 
with  them  their  school-teachers  and  preachers.  Schools 
were  invariably  established  by  them,  and  sometimes  before 
churches.  The  schools  were,  however,  rarely  separated 
from  the  churches,  and  when  a  movement  began  for  es- 
tablishing public  schools  in  their  districts,  the  Germans 
opposed  it.^  They  viewed  the  movement  with  suspicion,  as 
if  its  purpose  were  to  deprive  them  of  their  religion,  the 
influence  of  their  preachers,  or  the  use  of  their  language. 
Along  with  that  went  a  degree  of  pride  {Bauernstolz)  in 
their  ability  to  pay  for  the  instruction  of  their  children. 
They  did  not  wish  to  inflict  this  burden  upon  the  state, 
failing-  altosfether  to  see  the  benefits  derived  from  a  com- 
mon  school  system.  It  was  long  before  the  church  school 
could  be  replaced  by  a  public  school  in  their  counties.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  train  a  body  of  teachers  among  the 
German  population,  giving  instruction  in  the  English  lan- 
guage and  the  rudiments  of  American  law  and  politics,  by 
the  establishment  of  a  college.  This  foundation  was  located 
in  Lancaster  County,  in  1787,  and  was  named  after  Ben- 
jamin Franklin.  Henry  Muhlenberg  was  chosen  the  first 
head  of  FrankHn  College.^  The  charge  of  ignorance  against 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans  was  frequently  due  to  their 
lack  of  proficiency  in  the  use  of  the  English  language. 
Education  in  that  day  did  not  go  beyond  the  three  R's,  or 
the  practical  necessities  of  life,  and  to  the  native  popula- 
tion the  first  of  these  necessities  seemed,  of  course,  the 
ability  to  use  the  EngHsh  language.  Younger  generations, 

1  Sauer  was  a  leader  in  this  opposition. 

^  The  subject  of  the  college  and  education  in  Pennsylvania  will  be  treated 
more  fully  in  the  chapter  on  "  Educational  Influences."  See  Volume  ii, 
Chapter  v. 


148  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

however,  unless  inbred,  found  no  difficulty  with  the  Eng- 
lish language,  and  many  of  the  descendants  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Germans  shone  *  brilliantly  in  the  professions  at 
an  early  date,  as  testified  by  Dr.  Rush. 

The  Germans,  as  seen  in  the  present  chapter,  during  the 
eighteenth  century  became  more  numerous  in  Pennsylvania 
than  in  any  other  colony,  numbering  at  least  one  third  of 
the  total  population.  They  were  the  best  farmers  of  the 
colony,  laying  the  foundations  of  its  economic  wealth. 
They  developed  industries,  milling  and  weaving,  iron  and 
paper  manufacture,  glass-blowing.  Their  industry,  thrift, 
and  steadiness  furnished  an  example  to  the  rest  of  the 
population.  From  Pennsylvania  the  Germans  spread  to 
the  south  and  west. 

^  Examples  are  David  Rittenhouse,  the  astronomer  ;  Caspar  Wistar  and 
Joseph  Leidy,  eminent  in  medicine  ;  H.  E.  MUhleuberg,  iu  botany  ;  S.  S. 
Haldemaun,  as  a  naturalist  and  philologist. 


SGRAFFITO   PIE   PLATE    (178G) 


SGRAFFITO   DISH    (1762) 

TULIP  WARE  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMANS 


OF  IHf 
VNlVMSITi'  OF  ,LL»NO/S 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  EARLY  GERMANS  OF  NEW  JERSEY  AND  OF  MARYLAND 

New  Jersey  :  Germans  in  New  Jersey  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  —  German  Valley  —  Settlements  spreading  over  Hunterdon, 
Somerset,  Morris,  and  over  parts  of    Sussex  and  Warren   counties  — 

■  Eminent  descendants  of  the  early  Germans  —  A  church  quarrel  arbi- 
trated by  Muhlenberg,  etc.  —  The  Moravian  settlements. 

Maryland  :  Sporadic  cases  of  German  settlers  in  the  seventeenth  century 
—  In  the  eighteenth  century  Germans  numerous  and  influential  in  Balti-  ' 
more  —  The   Germans    of    Western     Maryland  ;    Frederick    County  ; 
Hagerstown  —  Distinguished   Marylanders   descended   from   the  early 
Germans. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  the  northern  counties  of  New 
Jersey,  the  region  between  the  Raritan  and  the  Passaic, 
were  favored  by  an  accident  in  getting  their  first  German 
settlers.  In  1707  a  number  of  Germans  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  residing  originally  between  Wolfenbiittel  and 
Halberstadt,  embarked  for  New  York,  but  by  adverse 
winds  were  carried  into  Delaware  Bay.  In  order  to  reach 
their  destination  among  the  Dutch  of  New  York,  they 
took  the  overland  route  from  Philadelphia  through  New 
Jersey.  As  they  entered  the  beautiful  valley  of  the 
Musconetcong*  and  the  Passaic  River  country,  they  were 
so  well  pleased  with  the  goodly  land  that  they  resolved 
to  go  no  further.  They  settled  in  the  region  of  German 
Valley  (Morris  County),  whence  they  spread  to  Somerset, 
Bergen,  and  Essex  counties.^ 

•  A  tributary  of  the  Delaware  forming  the  boundary  line  between  Morris 
and  Hunterdon  counties  on  the  east  side,  and  Sussex  and  Warren  on  the 
west,  and  then  flowing  into  the  Delaware. 

2  I.  D.  Rupp,  Thirty  Thousand  Names  of  Immigrants, 'p'^.  2,  3. 


150  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

While  It  is  possible  that  Germans  arrived  in  these 
parts  as  early  as  1707-08,  the  first  authentic  record  of 
the  presence  of  a  German  in  that  region  is  that  of  the 
baptism  of  a  child  of  John  Peter  Appleman  and  Anna 
Magdalena,  August  1,  1714.  This  event  occurred  at  the 
house  of  Ari  de  Guinea  (Harry  from  Guinea,  a  Christian 
negro).  The  child  had  been  born  on  March  25,  and  the 
parents  had  come  into  the  state  at  least  a  few  months 
previously.  The  date,  1713,  is  therefore  adopted  by  the 
Germans  of  New  Jersey  as  the  beginning  of  their  history.^ 
Another  event  on  record  is  the  first  religious  service  in 
German  Valley,  which  took  place  in  1743  (or  1744), 
according  to  a  letter  addressed  to  Michael  Schlatter  by 
the  people  of  Fox  Hill,  Lebanon,  and  Amwell  (German 
Valley),  in  1747,  which  speaks  of  the  service  as  having 
taken  place  three  or  four  years  before.  A  religious  service 
of  this  kind  naturally  presupposes  a  settlement  of  some 
dimensions,  and  therefore  the  first  settlers  must  have  come 
to  German  Valley  long  before.  The  first  German  Lutheran 
church  in  New  Jersey  was  opened  for  worship  in  1731 
in  what  is  now  Potterstown,  about  a  mile  east  of  Lebanon 
(Hunterdon  County).^     There  were  Holland  Lutherans  in 

'  The  facts  above  and  following  on  the  early  German  settlements  of  New 
Jersey  are  very  largely  taken  from  Chambers,  The  Early  Germans  of  New 
Jersey,  their  History,  Churches,  and  Genealogies,  Dover,  1895.  The  work  is 
based  on  careful  and  accurate  historical  researches,  on  examination  of  church 
records  (particularly  in  German  Valley  and  its  neighborhood),  land  records 
at  the  county-seats,  books  of  wills  at  Trenton,  county  and  family  histories, 
and  finally  tombstones  in  old  graveyards. 

2  The  church  at  Potterstown  (Rockaway)  was  dedicated  Saturday,  Septem- 
ber 11,  1731.  Berkenmeyer  and  two  elders  from  New  York  were  present, 
also  the  Reverend  D.  Falckner.  On  Sunday,  the  12th,  communion  was 
administered  to  about  thirty  persons,  at  which  Berkenmeyer  and  Falckner 
officiated.  Sachse,  The  German  Pietists  of  Provincial  Pennsylvania,  p.  330, 
takes  this  note  from  Berkenmeyer 's  Diary.  See  also  Archives  of  the  Lu- 
theran Seminary,  Gettysburg,  Pa. 


THE  EARLY  GERMANS  151 

the  state,  settled  earlier,  in  the  region  of  Hackensack, 
Bergen  County. 

There  is  evidence  also  that  some  of  the  Palatine  immi- 
grants of  1710  settled  in  New  Jersey,  records^  of  baptisms 
and  marriages  kept  by  the  First  Lutheran  Church  of  New 
York  furnishing  the  proof.  The  parish  of  the  Reverend 
Justus  Falckner,  who  began  his  ministry  in  New  York 
City  in  1703,  extended  over  a  vast  area,  from  Albany  in 
New  York  to  the  Raritan  region  (Hunterdon  County) 
in  New  Jersey.  The  Germans  of  New  Jersey  would  be 
justified  in  taking  1710  as  their  beginning,  or  three 
years  before  the  date  they  selected  when  they  celebrated 
the  one  hundred  and  eightieth  anniversary  of  their  first 
settlement.^ 

In  South  Jersey  there  were  Germans  who  came  with 
the  Swedish  settlers  long  before  1700,  but  they  lost  their 
identity  amid  the  predominant  race.  In  Salem  County, 
not  far  from  the  sources  of  the  rivers  Cohansey  and 
Alloway,  where  now  stands  the  little  town  of  Friesburg, 
there  was  a  German  Lutheran  congregation.  Jacob  M. 
Miller  had  settled  there  in  1732  with  Pastor  Johann 
Christian  Schultze.^ 

^  The  names  given  by  Chambers  (p.  35)  are  :  Schneider,  Lorentz,  Miiller 
(widow),  Hoffman,  Schmidt,  Henneschild  (Hendershot),  Fuchs  (Fox),  Vogt, 
J.  and  N.  Jung  (Young),  Klein,  Cramer  (widow),  Lucas. 

A  road  survey  in  1721,  in  the  vicinity  of  Amwell  Township,  Hunterdon 
County,  makes  mention  of  "the  Palatines'  land."  This  is  another  evidence 
of  the  early  settlements  of  Palatines  in  New  Jersey,  in  Hunterdon  County. 

^  This  memorable  event  occurred  in  1893  under  the  auspices  of  the  early 
German  settlers  of  German  Valley,  among  whom  are  many  men  distin- 
guished in  the  service  of  church  and  state.  The  Reverend  Theodore 
Frelinghausen  Chambers  was  one  of  the  moving  spirits. 

^Hallesche  Nachrichten,  vol.  i,  pp.  184,  269.  They  were  served  by  the  Swed- 
ish pastor  Tranberg,  1726-40,  later  by  Lutheran  ministers  from  Philadelphia. 
In  1760  Pastor  Handschuh  baptized  twelve  babes  and  had  one  hundred  and 
twenty  communicants,  when  there  was  a  great  assemblage.  They  built  and 
rebuilt  churches,  one  of  brick,  bearing  the  date  1768,  the  "  Emanuel  Church." 


152  THE   GERMAIN  ELEMENT 

The  bulk  of  the  early  German  settlers  were  located 
within  the  present  boundaries  of  the  counties  Hunterdon, 
Somerset,  Morris,  and  parts  of  Sussex  and  Warren.  The 
towns  of  Newton  and  Lambertville  would  mark  the  bound- 
aries on  the  north  and  south ;  Bound  Brook  and  the  Dela- 
ware River  on  the  east  and  west  respectively.  Some  of 
the  names  of  the  settlements  which  may  serve  to  denote 
the  locality  more  definitely  are  :  German  Valley,  Fox  Hill 
(once  the  name  of  the  whole  region  now  centring  in  Ger- 
man Valley ;  Fairmount  Presbyterian  Church  is  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  old  Fox  Hill  Church),  Lebanon,  New  Ger- 
mantown,  Unionville,  Flanders,  Spruce  Run,  Schooley's 
Mountain,  Pleasant  Grove.  Each  place  had  its  church, 
Lutheran  or  German  Reformed  (sometimes  both),  the  lat- 
ter often  taking  a  step  in  conformity  with  prevailing  relig- 
ious conditions  in  New  Jersey  and  becoming  Presbyterian, 
the  differences  in  dogma  not  being  considered  important, 
and  the  necessity  of  hearing  sermons  in  English  being 
strongly  felt.  The  Lutheran  churches  were  more  tenacious 
of  their  denominational  identity,  owing  to  their  stronger 
organization  and  their  greater  numbers. 

Chambers '  gives  about  three  hundred  German  family 
names,  compiled  mainly  from  church  records  before 
1762,  within  the  above-named  district,  giving  evidence  of 
quite  a  large  population.  The  German  settlers  of  Passaic, 
Bergen,  and  Essex  counties  may  have  come  from  the 
region  of  German  Valley  or  may  have  entered  from  Hud- 
son County,  i.  e.,  they  were  new  immigrants  coming  from 
New  York  City. 

Like  the  early  Germans  elsewhere,  those  of  New  Jersey 
were  industrious  and  thrifty.  They  were  mainly  of  the 
agricultural   class,  and   converted    German    Valley   and 

*  On  pp.  34-37,  and  in  the  appendix  of  his  book. 


THE   EARLY  GERMANS  153 

neighboring  districts  into  garden-like  farm-lands/  They 
were  religious,  building  churches  and  schools  and  enjoy- 
ing above  most  other  districts  the  reputation  of  liberality 
toward  their  preachers,  a  fact  which  is  dwelt  upon  by  both 
Muhlenberg  and  Schlatter.  An  instance  of  such  a  spirit 
is  found,  for  example,  in  1760,  when  the  sum  of  one  thou- 
sand pounds,  munificent  for  that  period,  was  bequeathed 
to  the  church  of  New  Germantown  for  the  purpose  of  its 
support  and  that  of  its  school. 

Though  the  New  Jersey  Germans  kept  their  German 
speech  and  customs  for  a  long  time,  they  were  p  ublic-spirited 
and  patriotic,  bearing  their  full  share  of  the  burdens  of  the 
colonial  wars  and  particularly  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
the  latter  raging  in  New  Jersey  probably  longer  and  more 
fiercely  than  in  any  other  district.  Instances  of  exemplary 
devotion  to  the  patriotic  cause  were  those  of  Nevelling 
and  Frelinghuysen.  John  Wesley  Gilbert  Nevelling,  who 
served  the  Amwell  church  at  the  beginning  of  his  minis- 
try, converted  all  his  property  into  money,  amounting  to 
five  thousand  pounds.  He  loaned  it  to  the  Continental 
Congress,  and,  losing  the  certificate  of  receipt  of  the  gov- 
ernment, he  never  recovered  any  of  the  amount.  He 
served  as  chaplain  in  the  army,  was  highly  esteemed  by 
Washington,  and  a  large  reward  was  offered  for  his 
capture  by  the  British  government.^ 

General  Frederick  Frelinghuysen,  grandson  of  the  Re- 
verend Theodore  J.  Frelinghuysen  (who  also  spelled  his 
name  Frelinghausen,  and  was  born  at  Lingen,  East  Fries- 
land,  within  the  present  limits  of  Prussia),  was  prominent 

1  They  also  improved  agriculture;  e.  g.,  a  man  by  the  name  of  Fuchs 
introduced  a  new  and  superior  variety  of  wheat,  and  the  people  from  a  great 
distance  bought  wheat  of  him.  "  They  went  to  Foxenburgh  "  (Fairmount). 
Chambers,  p.  128. 

^  Chambers,  p.  40. 


154  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

as  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  took  part  in  the 
battle  of  Trenton,  where  he  shot  the  Hessian  colonel  Rahl. 
Afterwards  in  command  of  militia,  he  took  part  in  the 
skirmishes  at  Springfield  and  Elizabeth,  and  in  the  battle 
of  Monmouth  Courthouse,  June,  1788.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  of  the  Convention  of  1787, 
and  of  the  United  States  Senate,  1793-96.  In  1794  he 
was  major-general  of  the  forces  of  New  Jersey  and  Penn- 
sylvania that  served  during  the  Whiskey  Insurrection  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Some  distinguished  descendants  of  the  early  New  Jersey 
German  settlers  are  found  in  the  Werts  family.  The 
Reverend  John  Conrad  Wirtz,  born  in  Zurich,  Switzerland, 
was  the  first  German  Reformed  preacher  in  Lebanon  and 
German  Valley,  before  1750,  of  whom  there  is  any  record. 
The  Honorable  George  Theodor  Werts,  governor  of  New 
Jersey,  1893-96,  is  a  great-great-grandson  of  the  Rever- 
end John  Conrad.  The  man  noted  as  the  wealthiest  capital- 
ist in  the  world,  John  D.  Rockefeller,  the  founder  of  the 
Standard  Oil  Company,  is  a  direct  descendant  of  the  early 
Germans  in  New  Jersey.  But  recently  (1906),  Mr.  John 
D.  Rockefeller  erected  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  his 
ancestor  Johann  Peter  Rockefeller,^  "  who  came  from  Ger- 
many about  1733  and  died  in  1783."  The  monument "  is 
erected  in  the  village  of  Larrison's  Corner,  near  Fleming- 
ton,  Hunterdon  County,  New  Jersey,  on  a  piece  of  laud 

1  Spelled  also  Rockefellar.  See  Chambers,  Sar/^  Germans  of  New  Jersey, 
appendix.  John  Peter  Rockefeller  had  two  sons,  Peter  and  John  (naturalized 
1730).  Some  of  the  Rockefellars  settled  at  the  camp  in  New  York  (Sauger- 
ties). 

^  It  was  erected  in  1906,  and  bears  an  inscription  stating  that  the  monu- 
ment is  dedicated  to  Johann  Peter  Rockefeller  by  his  direct  descendant, 
John  Davison  Rockefeller.  At  a  recent  family  reunion  it  was  stated  that  the 
family  had  descended  originally  from  a  Huguenot  ancestor,  who  had  immi- 
grated to  Germany.       , 


THE  EARLY   GERMANS  155 

which  Johann  Peter  Rockefeller  gave  as  a  burial-ground 
for  his  family  and  his  neighbors.  This  giving  instinct  was 
not  exceptional  among  the  early  Germans,  —  it  has  grown 
in  modern  times,  and  culminated  in  such  magnificent 
endowments  as  the  University  of  Chicago,  that  of  the 
General  Education  Board,^  and  the  Rockefeller  Institute 
for  Medical  Research,  New  York.  There  is  probably  no 
modern  benefactor  whose  vast  and  numerous  gifts  have 
been  more  wisely  distributed. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  seriousness  with  which  church 
and  religious  matters  were  treated  by  the  early  Germans, 
the  following  narrative  may  be  of  service.  It  is  the  story 
of  a  church  feud,  taken  from  the  letters  written  by  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Muhlenberg  ^  to  the  church  fathers  at  Halle, 
published  in  the  "Hallesche  Nachrichten."  ^ 

During  the  lifetime  of  Justus  Falckner,  who  was  the  able 
head  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  New  York  from  1703  to 
1723,  his  brother,  Daniel  Falckner,  served  the  German 
Lutheran  churches  in  the  Raritan  district.  But  after  the 
death  of  Justus  Falckner  in  1723,  and  when  Daniel  Falck- 
ner had  become  too  old  for  service,  the  German  churches  in 
New  Jersey  applied  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Berkenmeyer,  suc- 
cessor to  Justus  Falckner,  for  a  new  preacher  to  be  imported 
from  Germany.  A  call,  duly  sealed  and  signed  by  the  mem- 
bers of  three  congregations,  was  forwarded  to  Germany 
in  1731.    Nothing  came  of  it,  however,  until  three  years 

^  The  recent  gift  of  $32,000,000  to  the  General  Education  Board,  by  John 
D.  Rockefeller,  "  is  the  largest  sum  ever  given  by  a  man  in  the  history  of 
the  race  for  any  social  or  philanthropic  purposes."  (Words  quoted  from 
the  letter  of  acceptance  by  the  Board.) 

^  The  character  and  career  of  the  great  organizer  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  America,  the  Reverend  Heinrich  Melchior  Muhlenberg,  has  been  sketched 
in  the  preceding  chapter. 

3  German  Reprint :  Alleutown,  Pa.,  1886.  See  vol.  i,  pp.  113  £f.,  119  £f., 
123  ff.  The  translation  appeared  earlier  :  Reading,  Pa.,  1882. 


156  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

later,  when  the  home  church  ordained  August  Wolf,  and 
sent  him  to  America  at  a  stipulated  salary  and  expenses 
paid.  The  call  was  given  by  three  congregations,  "  on  the 
mountain"  (about  one  mile  from  Pluckamin),  Rackaway, 
or  Rockaway  (Potterstown),  and  Hanover  (probably  Fox 
Hill).  The  Reverend  Mr.  Wolf  was  received  with  love 
and  hopeful  expectation,  which  very  soon,  however,  gave 
place  to  disappointment,  for  the  new  pastor,  according  to 
Muhlenberg,  proved  "  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing."  To 
quote  the  story  as  told  in  the  "Reports" :  — 

They  then  fell  into  strife  with  one  another,  which  Pastor 
Berkenmeyer  and  Mr.  Knoll  from  New  York  have  again  medi- 
ated. But  Mr.  Wolf  does  not  look  at  his  office  rightly,  for  he  is 
not  willing  or  able  to  preach  without  his  written  sketches.  Hav- 
ing married  a  farmer's  daughter,  he  lived  with  her  amid  contin- 
ual blows  and  quarreling.  This  quarrelsome  life  and  inefficiency 
in  preaching  made  the  congregation  dissatisfied,  so  that  they  did 
not  pay  him  his  promised  salary.  They  offered  him  his  travel- 
ing expenses,  if  he  would  return  home  again,  but  he  would  not 
consent  to  do  so.  He  boasted  then  that  he  had  brought  his 
written  call  and  seal  from  Hamburg.  Mr.  Berkenmeyer  and  Mr. 
Knoll  interfered  and  complained  to  the  governor,  of  the  un- 
scrupulousness  of  the  congregation.  The  governor  ordered  that 
the  congregation  pay  and  support  him.  The  congregation  com- 
plained that  the  minister  was  not  efficient.  The  matter  then 
came  to  trial  before  the  court.  When  a  year  had  passed  Mr. 
Wolf  swore  before  the  authorities  that  he  had  performed  his 
duties  according  to  contract.  The  members  were  then  served 
with  writs  of  execution  upon  their  property,  and  many  of  them 
were  arrested  upon  the  highway.  In  short,  the  office  of  preacher 
was  by  these  causes  brought  into  disrepute,  the  young  neglected, 
the  holy  communion  not  administered,  the  sick  not  visited,  in- 
deed, there  was  such  a  desolation,  that  it  was  made  among  the 
Germans  a  subject  of  street  songs.  Finally,  the  matter  came 
before  the  supreme  court  and  caused  a  heavy  expense  to  the  con- 


THE   EARLY   GERMANS  157 

gregatlon.  The  lawyers  found  their  advantage  in  it.  Part  of  the 
members  sold  their  property  and  moved  away.^ 

This  condition  had  endured  for  many  years.  Miihlen- 
berg  had  often  been  implored  to  help  the  congregations, 
but  his  duties  kept  him  in  Pennsylvania.  Finally  a  board 
of  arbitration  was  chosen,  consisting  of  four  preachers. 
Mr.  Wolf  named  on  his  side  the  ministers  Berkenmeyer 
and  Knoll  of  New  York ;  the  congregations  named  the 
ministers  Miihlenberg  and  Brunnholz  of  Pennsylvania. 
For  the  latter  the  Reverend  Mr.  Wagner  was  afterward 
substituted.  Mr.  Berkenmeyer  absented  himself .  Thus  with 
three  judges  the  examination  and  deliberations  went  on, 
continuing  four  days  and  four  nights  and  proving  an  ar- 
duous task.  The  board  found  "  that  Mr.  Wolf  had  been 
the  primary  cause  of  all  the  contention  and  scandal,"  and, 
as  Muhlenberg  also  reports :  '^  He  had  not  shown  official 
and  paternal  fidelity  enough  to  teach  his  children  the 
Ten  Commandments." "  The  board  was  ready  to  set  the 
congregation  free,  when  a  compromise  was  agreed  to, 
yielding  Mr.  Wolf  a  sum  of  money,  for  which  he  would 
release  the  congregation  absolutely.  The  famous  document 
(the  call)  bearing  the  signatures  of  the  congregation,  was 
handed  over,  and  Mr.  Wolf  received  ninety  pounds,  from 
which  the  court  costs  were  deducted.  The  Reverend  Mr. 
Muhlenberg  had  once  more  done  his  church  and  country- 
men a  noble  service.  Thus  ended  the  most  bitter  of  all 
the  colonial  German  church  quarrels,  with  the  exception 
perhaps  of  the  one  in  Georgia,^  which  Muhlenberg  also 
arbitrated. 

1  Hallesche  NachricJiten,  vol.  i,  p.  119. 

2  The  discovery  of  this  neglect  no  doubt  weighed  heavily  in  the  balance 
against  Wolf. 

3  See  Chapter  ix. 


158  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

The  church  difficulty  was  not  completely  settled  after 
the  decree  of  the  ministerial  judges  had  gone  into  effect. 
The  congregations  were  unwilling  to  sign  another  call, 
having  had  the  one  unfortunate  experience,  and  they  hesi- 
tated also  because  of  the  rivalry  between  the  Lutheran 
ministeriums  of  Halle  and  Hamburg,  each  of  which  wanted 
to  fill  the  vacancy.  But  Miihlenberg  was  equal  to  all  emer- 
gencies, becoming  the  patron  of  the  Lutheran  congrega- 
tions of  New  Jersey  for  a  number  of  years,  frequently 
serving  them  for  months  at  a  time.  He  healed  all  schisms 
and  brought  about  a  period  of  prosperity.  Sometimes,  to 
be  sure,  he  was  disappointed  in  the  choice  of  assistants, 
and  he  writes  mournfully  to  the  church  fathers  at  Halle : 
"  The  lack  of  faithful,  steady,  and  experienced  laborers  is 
a  great  hindrance  to  the  spread  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ.  May  the  Lord  have  compassion  upon  us  and  send 
faithful  laborers  into  his  harvest."  Miihlenbergf  remained 
the  patriarch  of  the  New  Jersey  congregation  (from  1757 
to  1775),  with  assistants  to  serve  the  various  churches, 
among  whom  for  some  time  were  his  sons  Peter  and  Henry. 

An  interesting  product  of  prevailing  colonial  conditions 
was  the  Reverend  Mr.  Caspar  Wack.  He  was  called  to 
Great  Swamp  Church  in  1771.  When  he  first  came  to 
German  Valley,  the  preaching  was  all  in  German,  but 
under  changed  requirements  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
ministry,  he  preached  only  occasionally  in  German,  to 
please  the  old  people.  The  jargon  of  the  transition  period 
between  the  German  and  English  sermons  probably  did 
not  offend  in  those  days  as  it  might  now.  On  the  con- 
trary, on  one  occasion  it  had  a  very  pleasing  effect.  An 
English  army  officer,  having  heard  that  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Wack  was  a  German,  went  to  his  church  in  order  "to 
hear  what  a  German  sermon  would  sound  like."  He  came 


THE  EARLY  GERMANS  159 

away  rejoicing.  "  He  never  knew  before  that  German  was 
so  much  hke  EngHsh ;  he  could  understand  a  great  deal 
of  what  Mr.  Wack  said."  On  that  day  Mr.  Wack  had 
preached  an  English  sermon,  or  at  least  what  he  took  to 
be  English.  In  later  days,  however,  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Wack  is  said  to  have  been  in  command  of  good  English, 
at  least  of  correct  English,  faulty  only  in  accent,  and 
somewhat  in  pronunciation,  though  as  to  the  latter  it  is 
known  that  he  carefully  marked  his  manuscript  with  the 
dictionary's  pronunciation. 

Mr.  Wack  was  musical,  taught  a  singing-school,  carried 
on  a  farm,  and  drove  an  oil-  and  fulling-mill,  using  for 
power  the  stream  on  his  land.  He  became  a  well-to-do 
member  of  the  community.  No  eight-hour  laws  prevailed 
with  him,  and  he  was  out  on  his  fields  before  the  first 
peep  of  day.  When  the  breakfast-bell  was  heard,  he  would 
say:  "Now,  boys!  a  race,"  and  he  was  rarely  beaten.* 
Stories  are  told  of  the  quickness  of  his  wit.  While  on  one 
of  his  long  journeys,  a  young  man  asked  him  for  a  ride. 
"  Certainly,"  said  Mr.  Wack,  "  get  up  behind  me."  Now 
this  young  man  was  not  one  that  had  walked  straight  in 
the  paths  of  church  virtue,  nor  had  the  shepherd  ever  had 
an  opportunity  to  lead  back  this  recalcitrant  member  of 
the  flock.  The  opportunity  had  come,  and  the  minister 
poured  into  the  ears  of  the  sheep  such  an  amount  of  whole- 
some admonition  that  the  latter  remembered  it  as  an  ex- 
perience in  his  life.  The  young  scapegrace  declared,  when 
he  was  released,  that  it  was  the  hardest  ride  he  had  ever 
taken.  Mr.  Wack  later  removed  to  Stone  Arabia  in  the 
Mohawk  Valley,  and  served  as  chaplain  in  the  War  of 
1812. 

Besides  the  settlements  in   German  Valley  and  sur- 

1  Chambers,  pp.  112  S. 


160  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

rounding  counties,  there  are  records  of  a  few  other  Ger- 
man colonies.  At  Elizabethtown,  where  the  first  English 
settlement  was  made  in  1664,  there  were  many  German 
settlers  prior  to  1734,  as  we  learn  from  the  Urlsperger 
"  Reports."  *  Other  German  settlers  were  located  at  a  place 
called  Hall  Mill,"  some  thirty  miles  from  Philadelphia.^  In 
addition  to  these  we  get  information  about  others  from 
the  reports  of  the  Moravian  preachers.  The  latter  had  reg- 
ular preaching  stations  in  the  more  southerly  counties  of 
New  Jersey,  at  Maurice  River,  Penn's  Neck,  Raccoon, 
Cohansey,  Middletown,  Trenton,  Maidenhead,  Crosswicks, 
Crawberry,  and  Princeton.  These  stations  presuppose  the 
existence  of  German  settlers  in  considerable  numbers,  for 
the  Moravian  preachers  commonly  preached  in  German, 
many  of  them  not  knowing  English  well  enough  to  preach 
in  that  language,  as  we  learn  from  the  diaries  of  Moraviaii 
missionaries  who  passed  through  Virginia. 

A  prosperous  Moravian  colony,  at  least  for  a  period, 
was  the  Hope  Settlement,  located  in  Warren  County. 
American  travelers,^  passing  through,  commented  on  "  the 
strong,  neat,  and  compact  Moravian  houses,  mostly  of 
stone,  the  mechanics'  shops,  the  stores,  and  above  all  a 
mill,  one  of  the  finest  and  most  curious  mills  in  America." 
The  same  mill  is  described  in  the  travels  of  a  French  sol- 
dier,^ in  1778,  one  of  the  members  of  La  Fayette's  staff : 

Mr.  Colver  treated  us  with  an  anxiety  and  respect  more  Ger- 
man than  American,  and  led  us  first  to  see  the  saw-mill  which 

*  Von  Reck,  Urlsperger  Nachrichten,  p.  159. 

^  The  Reverend  Michael  Schlatter  preached  there  in  1746.  Magazine  of 
German  Reformed  Church,  vol.  ii,  p.  266. 

^  The  Honorable  William  Ellery  and  the  Honorable  William  Whipple, 
two  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  in  1777,  vrrote  about  it  in 
their  diary,  from  which  the  above  quotation  is  taken. 

*  Travels  in  North  America,  pp.  307  ff.,  published  1780-82,  by  the  Chevalier 
de  Chastellux. 


THE   EARLY   GERMANS  161 

is  the  most  beautiful  and  best  contrived  I  ever  saw.  A  single 
man  only  is  necessary  to  direct  the  work ;  the  same  wheels 
which  keep  the  saw  in  motion  serve  also  to  convey  the  trunks  of 
trees  from  the  spot  where  they  are  deposited  to  the  workhouse, 
a  distance  of  25  or  30  toises  (making  a  total  distance  of  over  150 
feet)  :  they  are  placed  on  a  sledge,  which,  sliding  in  a  groove,  is 
drawn  by  a  rope,  which  rolls  and  unrolls  on  the  axis  of  the 
wheel  itself.  Planks  are  sold  at  six  shillings,  Pennsylvania  cur- 
rency, the  hundred.  If  you  find  the  wood,  it  is  only  half  the 
money. 

In  1807  the  properties  *  at  Hope  were  sold  by  the  Mo- 
ravian Brethren,  and  the  members  of  the  settlement  re- 
moved to  Bethlehem  or  other  Moravian  towns.  All  their 
settlements  were  managed  on  the  cooperative  plan,  and  i£ 
any  proved  less  advantageous,  it  was  abandoned  or  sold 
so  as  not  to  be  a  burden  for  the  others. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Germans  settled  within  the  pre- 
sent boundaries  of  New  Jersey  as  early  as  the  first  and 
second  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century.  They  soon 
massed  in  great  numbers  in  the  district  known  as  German 
Valley.  Their  settlements  were  most  prosperous  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  present  counties  of  Hunterdon,  Som- 
erset, Morris,  and  in  portions  of  Sussex  and  Warren. 
Many  distinguished  Americans  have  descended  from  the 
old  New  Jersey  Germans. 

Maryland :  In  the  province  of  Maryland  some  few  Ger-  ^ 
mans  had  settled  as  early  as  the  seventeenth  century. 
There  was  Cornelius  Commegys  from  Vienna,  who  settled 
in  Cecil  County  with  four  other  Germans,  among  them 
Augustin  Herman  (Harman),  before  1660.  There  was 
Martin  Faulkner  (Falkner),  who  received  one  hundred  and 
fifty  acres  in   Anne  Arundel  County  (1680),  which  he 

^  There  were  also  a  tannery,  pottery,  oil-mill,  besides  a  saw-mill  and  farms. 


162  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

called  "Martin's  Rest."  Robert  Sadler  in  1689  received 
a  grant  of  land  in  Baltimore  County.  There  were  a  num- 
ber of  others  in  various  counties,  as  the  records  in  the 
state  capitol  at  Annapolis  show.^  Most  of  the  immigrants 
landed  at  Annapolis,  called  "The  Port  of  Severn,"  then 
of  much  greater  importance  as  a  seaport  than  Baltimore, 
the  latter  being  incorporated  as  a  city  not  until  1796 
(though  laid  out  about  1730),  Annapolis  having  been 
made  a  city  in  1696,  one  hundred  years  earlier. 

There  were  a  number  of  Germans  with  the  Labadists,^ 
the  sect  of  communists  who  settled  (1684)  on  the  Bo- 
hemian River,  within  the  present  state  of  Delaware.  The 
founder  and  leader  of  the  Labadist  settlement  on  Bohemia 
Manor  was  Peter  Sluyter,  born  at  Wesel  in  the  Rhineland. 
His  original  name  was  Vorstmann,  but  just  before  his 
immigration  he  assumed  the  name  of  Sluyter  or  Schluter. 
His  co-worker,  Jasper  Danker,  had  also  changed  his  name, 
from  Schilders.  They  had  been  sent  by  the  mother  colony 
at  Wieuwerd  in  Westfriesland  to  discover  a  suitable  place 
for  a  colony  in  America.  The  place  selected  was  that  al- 
ready named,  on  Bohemia  River,  on  the  land  of  Augustin 
Herman.  Herman  even  promised  to  erect  the  necessary 
buildings  for  the  colony,  and  his  oldest  son,  Ephraim, 
became  a  convert  to  the  society.^  Danker  soon  withdrew 

1  J.  A.  Weishaar,  "The  German  element  in  Maryland  up  to  the  year 
1700,"  Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Germans 
in  Maryland,  pp.  13-34.  The  author  has  carefully  worked  through  the  old 
court  records  at  Annapolis  and  brought  to  light  a  quantity  of  interesting  facts 
regarding  the  earliest  Germans  of  Maryland. 

^  They  were  followers  of  Jean  de  Labadie,  Christian  communists.  They 
denied  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  on  the  ground  that  life  is  a  perpetual 
Sabbath.  They  believed  in  marriage  as  a  holy  ordinance,  and  denied  original 
sin.  The  sect  disappeared  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
even  earlier  in  America.  In  1698  besides  Sluyter  only  eight  male  members 
remained  in  the  Labadist  settlement  of  Bohemia  Manor. 

3  The  deed  conveyed  the  land,  August  11,  1684,  to  Sluyter  and  Danker 


THE  EARLY  GERMANS  163 

and  left  Sliiyter  sole  leader  of  the  community  with  the 
rank  of  bishop.  The  latter  became  a  successful  tobacco 
planter,  and  it  is  said  a  slave  trader,  dying  a  wealthy  man. 

The  most  noted  of  the  Germans  in  this  section  was, 
however,  Augustin  Herman^  (born  at  Prague,  1621),  the 
founder  of  Cecil  County,  patron  at  one  time  of  the  La- 
badists,  and  defender  of  the  rights  of  Maryland  against 
neighboring  colonies.^  He  drew  a  map^  of  the  state  of 
Maryland  for  Lord  Baltimore,  which  was  "  applauded  for 
its  exactness  even  by  His  Royal  Majesty,  the  King,"  and 
about  the  same  time  he  was  chosen  representative  of 
Baltimore  to  the  General  Assembly. 

No  considerable  number  of  German  settlers  arrived  in 
Maryland  before  the  eighteenth  century,  even  not  before 
the  second  quarter.  From  its  very  beginning  (1730)  Ger- 
mans were  active  in  the  settlement  and  commercial  pro- 
gress of  Baltimore.  Many  of  them,  enterprising  Germans 
or  descendants  of  Germans,  came  down  from  Pennsylvania, 
and  with  "  capital  and  industry  employed  here,  contributed 
essentially  to  aid  the  original  settlers,"  *    G.  M.  Meyer 

from  Friesland,  Bayard  from  New  York  (the  Huguenot  ancestor  of  a  line  of 
American  statesmen,  the  last  of  them  Thomas  Francis  Bayard,  secretary 
of  state,  1885-89,  ambassador  to  England,  1893),  John  Moll  and  Arnold  de 
la  Grange  from  Delaware. 

1  Augustin  Herman  was  naturalized  in  Maryland  by  act  of  legislature  in 
1663,  with  two  sons  and  three  daughters  ;  with  them  a  family  by  the  name 
of  Hack,  also  of  German  stock.  One  John  Hack  traded  with  the  Indians 
and  was  well  known  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  in  1647. 

^  Augustin  Herman  had  previously  lived  in  New  Amsterdam,  and  was 
there  distinguished  as  a  trader  in  tobacco,  a  representative  of  the  popular 
party  and  a  diplomatist.  Though  not  a  friend  of  Stuyvesant,  the  latter 
used  him  on  many  important  embassies,  the  last  becoming  the  occasion  of 
Herman's  settling  in  Maryland.  Deutsch-amerikanisches  Magazin,  pp.  202  £F. 
and  524  &. 

3  Cf.  Weishaar,  p.  28. 

*  Cf.  Colonel  J.  G.  Scharf,  The  Chronicles  of  Baltimore,  pp.  37,  202.  Balti- 
more, 1874.  See  also  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xviii,  p.  179,  article  by 
E.  F.  Leyh. 


164  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

erected  a  mill,  D.  Barnetz  and  Leonard  from  York^  Pa., 
together  established  the  first  brewery,  Valentin  Latsch 
built  an  inn  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Baltimore  and  Gay 
streets,  Andrew  Steiger  was  the  first  butcher,  who,  before 
1759  and  after,  purchased  large  tracts  of  land  in  the  bend 
of  Jones's  Falls  and  beyond,  for  the  feeding  of  his  cattle, 
his  purchases  covering  a  large  part  of  East  Baltimore  and 
being  known  as  Steiger's  Meadow.  German  Street,  paral- 
lel to  Baltimore  Street,  and  one  of  the  thoroughfares  for 
the  wholesale  trade,  was  once  covered  with  the  kitchen- 
garden  and  tobacco  plantation  of  a  German  farmer.  After 
Baltimore  was  incorporated,  in  1796,  there  were  three  Ger- 
mans among  the  first  seven  aldermen  of  the  new  city,  viz.: 
Engelhardt  Yeiser,  Peter  Hoffmann,  and  George  Linden- 
berger,  the  latter  a  public-spirited  man,  magistrate,  founder 
of  a  fire  company  and  a  militia  officer  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  As  early  as  1758  a  German  church  was  built 
in  Baltimore,  and  four  years  later  a  second  one.^  Both 
were  Protestant,  the  German  Catholics  being  not  numer- 
ous enough  as  yet  to  build  a  church  of  their  own,  or  find- 
ing it  more  advantageous  to  join  the  prominent  English 
Catholic  congregations. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolutionary  War  the  Germans 
of  Baltimore  sent  many  volunteer  companies  into  the 
patriot  army,  a  fact  that  proves  the  existence  of  a  large 
German  population  in  that  city.  Washington's  purchasing 

'  Cf.  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Germans 
in  Maryland,  pp.  60  and  64.  Also  :  A  History  of  Zion  Church  of  the  City 
of  Baltimore,  1755-1897,  pp.  9, 10,  14.  By  Pastor  Jul.  Hof  mann.  Baltimore, 
1905.  The  Germans  held  union  services  (including  the  Lutheran  and  Re- 
formed) in  Baltimore  very  soon  after  the  town  was  laid  out  (1730).  The 
Lutherans  founded  a  separate  organization  as  early  as  1755  (Zion  Church). 
Their  first  church,  however,  seems  to  have  been  built  a  few  years  after  the 
church  of  the  German  Reformed  (1758),  who  were  at  first  more  numerous. 


THE   EAKLY   GERMANS  165 

agent,  Jake  Keeport  (Kuhbord),  was  a  Baltimore  German. 
When  the  Continental  Congress,  after  its  flight  from  Phil- 
adelphia, sought  refuge  in  Baltimore,  they  held  their  meet- 
ings in  a  hall  owned  by  the  German  merchant,  Veit/ 

Many  of  the  noted  families  of  the  city  and  state  are 
of  German  origin,  among  them  those  bearing  the  names  of 
Albert,  Appold,  Baer,  Diffenderfer,  Friese,  Frick,  Hoff- 
mann, Keyser,  King,  Levering,  Mayer,  Miller,  Milton- 
berger,  Reeder,  Schley,  Schmucker,  Steiner,  Strieker, 
Uhler,^  Van  Bibber,  Yeiser,  and  a  large  number  of  oth- 
ers.^ The  ancestor  of  the  Alberts  came  from  Wiirzburg, 
Bavaria,  in  1752.  The  family  were  prominent  as  mer- 
chants and  organizers  of  financial  and  charitable  institu- 
tions in  the  city.  Peter  Hoffmann  came  from  Frankf ort-on- 
the-Main  in  1742,  settled  first  at  Frederick,  then  became 
a  drygoods  merchant  in  Baltimore,  his  descendants  expand- 
ing into  business  operations  of  many  kinds,  in  and  beyond 
the  state.  George  Hoffmann  is  noted  for  once  owning  the 
finest  residence  in  Baltimore  called  "  Hoffmann's  Folly," 
at  the  corner  of  Franklin  and  Cathedral  streets.  The  Lev- 
erings  are  descended  from  an  ancestor  born  in  Germany, 
who  settled  first  in  Roxborough  township,  in  the  county 

1  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xviii,  pp.  179  ff. 

2  The  name  Uhler  appears  very  early,  in  Uhler's  Alley,  1730,  when  the 
town  was  laid  out. 

2  C.  F.  Raddatz,  "German  American  Families  in  Maryland,"  Sixth  An- 
nual Report  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland,  1891- 
92,  pp.  43-50.  Also  Fifth  Annual  Report,  "Family  Records,"  pp.  91-96. 
Also  Sixth  Annual  Report,  E.  F.  Leyh,  "  Baltimore's  Deutsch-Amerikaner 
im  Handel  u.  Industrie,"  pp.  77-85.  The  Calendar  of  1795  contains  a  very 
large  percentage  of  German  names,  among  them  representatives  of  pro- 
minent business  houses  :  Peter  Hoffmann,  Falck,  Focke,  Albert,  Mayer, 
Schwarz,  Schiifer,  Bohn,  Slingluff,  Brantz,  Waesche,  Raborg,  Schroeder, 
Benziger,  Reinecker,  Diffenderfer,  Stauffer,  Stark,  Seekamp,  Ratien,  Ko- 
nicke,  Zollikoffen,  Clemm,  Eichelberger,  Sadler.  Governor  Sharpe  in  1753 
comments  on  the  prominence  of  well-to-do  Germans  in  Baltimore. 


166  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

of  Philadelphia,  about  1685,  and  later  removed  to  Balti- 
more. His  name  appeared  in  a  deed  as  Weekhart  Lieber- 
ing,  and  he  lived  to  the  age  of  109  years/  His  great- 
grandchildren, Aaron  and  Enoch,  through  the  influence  of 
their  brother-in-law,  John  Brown,  a  native  of  Belfast,  Ire- 
land, removed  to  Maryland  and  became  the  founders  of 
the  Levering  family  in  Baltimore.  Aaron  became  a  soldier 
in  the  Revolution,  one  of  the  captains  of  the  flying  camp, 
and  was  honorably  discharged  with  the  rank  of  colonel. 
As  merchants  the  Leverings  became  distinguished  by 
their  coft'ee  trade  with  South  America.^  More  reputed  as 
a  soldier  was  General  John  Strieker,  born  in  Frederick, 
Maryland,  1759,  the  son  of  Colonel  George  Strieker  of 
Revolutionary  fame.  He  fought  in  the  Revolution,  later 
became  a  merchant  of  Baltimore,  and  during  the  attack 
on  the  city  in  1814  by  the  English  under  General  Ross, 
commanded  the  brigade  which  was  sent  forward  to  check 
the  enemy's  advance.  A  street  in  Baltimore  bears  his 
name.  Christian  Mayer  ^  and  his  partner,  Louis  Brantz, 
emigrated  from  Germany  in  1784  and  were  intimately 
connected  with  Baltimore's  commercial  development.  They 

1  He  died  in  1744,  as  stated  in  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  no.  844. 

^  Joshua  Levering  was  the  prohibition  candidate  for  the  presidency  of 
the  United  States,  1896.  The  Leverings  were  the  donors  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
building  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

'  Francis  B.  Mayer,  ex-president  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railway  Com- 
pany, gives  some  interesting  items  of  family  history,  published  by  the  Soci- 
ety for  the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland  {Fifth  Annual  Report).  The 
Mayers  came  from  Ulm,  Wiirtemberg,  first  went  to  Ebenezer  in  Georgia, 
thence  to  Maryland,  bearing  a  letter  from  Cecil  Calvert  to  Benjamin 
Tasker,  first  in  the  council  of  the  state,  "  recommending  Mr.  Christopher 
Bartholomew  Mayer  to  Civilitys  on  his  arrival  in  Maryland  "  (1752).  C.  B. 
Mayer  led  a  group  of  Palatines  to  the  Monocacy  settlement  in  Frederick 
County.  They  had  come  on  the  ship  Patience  from  Georgia.  A  branch 
of  the  Mayer  family  later  removed  to  Baltimore,  as  was  the  case  with  many 
Frederick  County  Germans,  e.  g.,  the  Schleys  and  Steiners. 


THE  EARLY  GERMANS  167 

established  a  tobacco  trade  with  the  Netherlands,  and 
founded  marine  insurance  companies.  There  were  pro- 
minent also  the  Appolds,  leather  merchants,  the  Fricks,men 
of  affairs  and  lawyers,  and  Jac.  Brusstar,  one  of  the  first 
shipbuilders  of  Baltimore,  when  that  industry  was  the 
pride  of  the  state.  The  Bremen  and  Hamburg  ship  com- 
panies soon  established  agencies  in  Baltimore,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  firm  Kapff  and  Ansbach  in  1795,  succeeded 
by  others  later.  These  German  ship-lines  going  regularly 
back  and  forth  to  Europe,  and  visiting  also  South  Ameri- 
can ports,  had  much  to  do  with  raising  Baltimore  to  a 
high  rank  as  a  seaport  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

Just  as  important  is  the  part  the  Germans  took  in  the 
settlement  and  development  of  Western  Maryland.  Gen- 
erally the  settlers  of  Western  Maryland  were  Pennsyl- 
vania Germans  who,  on  their  way  to  Virginia  (Spottsyl- 
vauia),  were  attracted  by  the  good  land  and  prospects  on 
the  way.  The  route  of  travel  from  Lancaster  County  to 
Virginia  was  over  an  Indian  trail,  now  broad  enough  to 
be  used  by  travelers  and  settlers  moving  with  packhorses. 
It  extended  across  York  and  Adams  counties,  Pennsyl- 
vania, to  the  Monocacy  River  near  the  point  where  it  crosses 
the  boundary  between  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  fol- 
lowed the  river  for  a  time,  then  went  westward  across  the 
Blue  or  South  Mountains,  at  Crampton's  Gap,  and  thence 
to  the  Potomac  River.  On  this  route  the  first  Germans 
arrived  in  Maryland  about  1729,  and  settled  near  the 
Monocacy  River.  They  built  the  first  German  church  in 
Maryland  between  1732  and  1734.  The  Indian  trail  in 
1739  was  widened  by  action  of  the  Lancaster  County 
Court  and  the  Maryland  Assembly,  and  became  known  as 
the  Monocacy  Road,  being  used  as  a  part  of  the  great 
highway  from  the  East  to  the  South  and  Southwest.  On 


168  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

this  road  one  hundred  and  fifty  wagons  and  two  hundred 
packhorses,  secured  in  Pennsylvania,  were  brought  to  the 
camp  at  Frederick  in  1755,  preparatory  to  the  campaign 
of  General  Braddock/ 

Charles,  Lord  Baltimore,  seeing  the  generous  proposi- 
tions made  by  neighboring  provinces  to  German  settlers, 
tried  to  do  better  than  the  governor  of  Virginia.  Accord- 
ingly in  1732  he  made  an  exceedingly  liberal  offer  to  col- 
onists :  two  hundred  acres  of  land  in  fee  (subject  to  the 
rental  of  four  shillings  sterling  per  year,  for  every  one 
hundred  acres,  payable  at  the  end  of  three  years)  to  any 
person  having  a  family  who  should  within  three  yea^s  act- 
ually settle  on  the  land  between  the  rivers  Potomac  and 
Susquehanna,  and  to  each  single  person,  male  or  female, 
between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  thirty,  one  hundred  acres 
of  land  on  the  same  terms,  with  the  assurance  that  they 
should  be  as  well  secured  in  every  particular  in  Maryland 
as  in  any  part  of  the  British  plantations  in  America,  with- 
out exception.  This  offer  guaranteed  land  at  the  rental  of 
one  cent  an  acre,  and  no  rent  to  pay  for  the  first  three 
years.  It  is  not  surprising  that  many  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans, seeing  the  good  land  in  what  is  now  Frederick  and 
Washington  counties,  Maryland,  dug  their  spades  into  the 
earth  then  and  there,  set  up  their  hearthstones,  and  forgot 
all  their  intentions  of  going  farther. 

The  earliest  settlement  was  that  called  Monocacy,^  near 
the  present  site  of  Creagerstown,  about  ten  miles  north 
of  the  present  city  of  Frederick.  The  location  of  the  old 
log  church  of  Monocacy  and  of  the  graveyard  near  by,  has 
been  fixed  as  less  than  a  mile  distant  from  Creagerstown. 

*  The  road  was  macadamized  in  1808. 

2  Cf.  E.  T.  Schultz,  "First  Settlements  of  Germans  in  Maryland,"  a 
paper  read  before  the  Frederick  County  Historical  Society,  etc.  Published 
by  request,  D.  H.  Smith,  Frederick,  Maryland,  1896. 


THE   EARLY   GERMANS  169 

The  latter  place  was  a  later  settlement,  founded  by  a  Ger- 
man, either  Cramer  or  Creager,  between  1760  and  1770. 
This  town  was  located  on  more  elevated  ground,  doubtless 
an  advantage  over  the  older  village,  which  declined  and 
possibly  was  even  abandoned.  Creagerstown  might  well 
have  adopted  the  name  Monocacy,  and  then  could  claim 
the  honor  of  being  the  oldest  town  in  Western  Maryland. 

The  successful  rival  of  the  Monocacy  settlement  was 
Frederick  Town.  In  1735  there  arrived  about  one  hundred 
families  from  the  Palatinate  by  way  of  Chesapeake  Bay, 
landing  either  at  Annapolis  or  Alexandria/  presumably  at 
Annapolis,  because  the  German  immigrants  settled  on 
lands  owned  by  Daniel  Dulaney  of  Annapolis,  located  in 
Western  Maryland.  There  a  town  was  laid  out  in  1745, 
on  both  sides  of  Carroll  Creek,  three  miles  from  the  Mono- 
cacy River.  It  was  called  Frederick  Town  in  honor  of 
Frederick,  son  of  Lord  Baltimore,  then  a  boy  of  fourteen. 

The  leader  of  the  immigrants  was  Thomas  Schley, 
their  schoolmaster,  the  ancestor  of  a  prominent  family 
with  branches  in  Maryland  and  Georgia.  He  seems  to 
have  been,  like  Ulmer  of  the  Waldo  settlement  in  Maine, 
every  inch  a  leader,  capable  of  taking  the  initiative  in  all 
important  activities  of  the  colony,  besides  being  the 
teacher,  and  reader  in  the  absence  of  a  minister.  Schlat- 
ter reports  of  him :  "  It  is  a  great  advantage  for  this  con- 
gregation^ that  they  have  the  best  schoolmaster  I  have 

'  Both  of  these  towns  were  more  important  seaports  at  that  time  than 
Baltimore.  Large  numbers  of  Germans  landed  at  Annapolis,  as  the  follow- 
ing record  will  illustrate,  taken  from  the  entries  at  Annapolis.  Between  1752 
and  1755,  1060  immigrant  Germans  arrived.  In  1752,  150  arrived  ;  in  1753, 
460  ;  and  in  1755,  450.  Cf.  "  Memoranda  in  reference  to  early  German  Im- 
migration to  Maryland,"  by  F.  B.  Mayer,  Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Society 
for  the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland,  1890-91,  p.  19. 

^  The  Monocacy  congregation  embraced  Frederick  and  the  straggling 
settlements  in  the  neighborhood. 


170  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

met  with  in  America.  He,  Thomas  Schley,  sjjares  neither 
labor  nor  pains  in  instructing  the  young,  and  edifying  the 
congregation  according  to  his  ability,  by  means  of  singing 
and  reading  the  word  of  God,  and  printed  sermons,  on  every 
Lord's  Day."  Germans  continued  to  arrive  in  the  Mono- 
cacy  district  in  a  steadily  flowing  stream.  Before  1750 
German  families  of  the  following  names  had  built  their 
homes  in  this  valley :  Zimmerman,  Kolb,  Hoffman,  Beck- 
enbaugh,  Bickel,  Tradane,  Devilbiss,  Wetzel,  Eckman,  Cra- 
mer (Kramer),  Brinker,  Crise  (Kris),  Gushorn,  Dohlman, 
Blumingshine,  Protsman,  Shrump,  Stull,  Culler,  Creiger 
(Krieger),  Poe  (Poh),  Eichelberger,  Shriver,  Weinbrenner, 
Shryock,  Wilnide,  and  many  others.  Most  of  these  can 
be  recognized  as  good  Pennsylvania  German  names.*  A 
few  settlers  of  English  extraction  intermingled  with  the 
Germans,  the  Campbells,  Grimes,  Hammetts,  Heads,  and 
others.  The  first  church-rolls  of  the  Reformed  and  Lu- 
theran congregations  in  the  Frederick  district  furnish  an 
abundance  of  names  known  from  Pennsylvania  to  Carolina 
in  addition  to  those  mentioned,  such  as  Baltzell,  Brunner, 
Baer,  Getzendenner,  Michael,  Holtz,  Kemp,  Sinn  (or  Zinn), 
Steiner  (Stoner),  Wolff,  Thomas,  Gephardt,  Mantz,  Doll, 
Hauer,  Lingenfeld,  Schwartz,  Schriner,  Schultz,  Rohr, 
Kunkle,  Kuntz  (Kuhns,  Coons,  etc.),  Fauble,  Webber, 
Witman,  Wetzel,  Bentz,  Weiss,  Staley  (Stehli),  and  numer- 
ous others. 

Most  of   our   information   concerning  Monocacy  and 

^  The  Albaughs,  Zollers,  Harbaughs,  Stauffers,  Stiramels,  Smiths,  Cron- 
ises,  Millers,  Derrs,  Delaplanes,  Shanks,  Hauvers  (Hoover,  Huber),  Dud- 
derers,  Fogies,  Adamses,  Weavers,  Barracks,  Hedges,  Crimms,  Wiers, 
Kellers,  Snooks,  Reamers,  Snyders,  Clems,  Ramsbergs,  Shaefers,  Letter- 
mans,  Wormans,  Houcks,  and  Heffners  were  also  settlers  prior  to  1760 
in  what  are  now  the  districts  of  Hauvers,  Lewistown,  Woodsboro,  Liberty, 
and  Mechanicstown.  Schultz,  First  Settlements  of  Germans  in  Maryland, 
p.  24,  etc. 


THE   EARLY  GERMANS  171 

Frederick  is  derived  from  reports  of  Schlatter  and  Muhl- 
enberg', who  organized  congregations,  preached  to  them, 
and  supplied  them  as  far  as  possible  with  ministers.  Both 
of  them  comment  on  the  fact  that  there  were  few  secta- 
rians in  Maryland.  There  was  only  one  other  denomina- 
tion besides  their  own,  namely,  the  Moravian,  and  that 
gave  Muhlenberg  some  trouble.  The  missionaries,  Ninke 
and  Nyberg,  between  1745  and  1749  collected  a  number 
of  believers  about  them  and  founded  the  settlement  of 
Graceham,  about  twelve  miles  northwest  of  Frederick 
Town.  Graceham  is  the  seat  of  the  first  Moravian  church 
in  Maryland,  and  for  a  long  time  was  a  noted  centre  of 
religious  worship. 

Michael  Schlatter,  with  the  purpose  of  organizing  the 
German  Reformed  congregations,  arrived  in  Maryland  in 
1747,  and  repeated  his  visits  subsequently.  On  his  first 
tour  he  baptized  twenty  children  and  administered  the 
Lord's  Supper  to  eighty-six  communicants.  He  comments 
upon  the  purity  of  the  settlement,  meaning  the  absence  of 
"  religious  errors,"  i.  e.,  sects,  and  says  that  if  this  congre- 
gation were  united  with  Conogocheague,  lying  thirty  miles 
distant,  the  two  would  be  able  to  support  a  minister  (a 
union  which  was  effected  some  years  later).  The  settlement 
at  Monocacy  in  the  earlier  years  was  undoubtedly  more 
important  than  Frederick  Town,  since  both  Schlatter  and 
Muhlenberg  always  made  the  former  their  headquarters, 
going  to  Frederick  Town,  ten  miles  distant,  for  their  re- 
ligious work  and  coming  back  the  same  day  to  lodge 
at  Monocacy.  The  first  regular  pastor  of  the  Lutheran 
church  at  Frederick  was  the  Reverend  Bernard  Houseal, 
in  1753,  the  son-in-law  of  Christopher  B.  Mayer  (who  ar- 
rived with  the  company  of  Palatines  at  Annapolis).  Be- 
tween 1748  and  1753  as  many  as  twenty-eight  hundred 


172  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Palatines  came  to  Maryland  seaports  directly  from  Ger- 
many. These  settled  in  Frederick  or  in  Baltimore  County/ 
Another  noteworthy  settlement  in  Frederick  County 
Tvas  that  of  Fleecy  Dale.  John  Frederick  Amelung  came 
from  Bremen  in  1784:  with  a  colony  of  from  three  to  four 
hundred  persons,  —  bakers,  blacksmiths,  doctors,  shoe- 
makers, tailors,  etc.  They  settled  on  Bennett's  Creek,  near 
the  Monocacy,  in  what  is  now  the  Urbana  district  of  Freder- 
ick County.  The  noteworthy  fact  about  the  settlement  was 
the  foundinsf  of  an  establishment  for  the  manufacture  of 
glass.  President  Washington,  in  a  letter  to  Jefferson,  re- 
ferring to  these  works,  says  :  "  A  factory  of  glass  is  estab- 
lished upon  a  large  scale  on  Monocacy  River  near  Frederick 
in  Maryland.  I  am  informed  it  will  produce  this  year  glass 
of  various  kinds  to  the  amount  of  ten  thousand  pounds." 
A  claim  is  made  that  this  factory  was  the  first  in  America 
that  manufactured  hollow  glassware.  Amelung  presented 
in  person  to  Washington  "  two  capacious  goblets  made  of 
flint  glass,  exhibiting  the  General's  coat  of  arms."  The 
story  goes,  that  the  presentation  was  made  at  Mount  Ver- 
non, Amelung  appearing  in  full  court  costume.  Crossing 
the  lawn  he  addressed  a  man  mounted  on  a  ladder,  who, 
in  his  shirt-sleeves,  was  fixing  the  grape-vines.  The  orna- 
mental gift  of  crystal  almost  dropped  from  Amelung's 
hands,  when  he  found  that  the  person  addressed  on  the 
ladder  was  Washington  himself.  A  large  number  of  pieces 
of  Amelung's  manufacture  are  still  in  the  possession  of  the 
Masonic  Lodge  at  Alexandria,  of  which  Washington  was 
a  member  and  the  first  Master.  Some  others  of  Amelung's 
decanters,  punch-bowls,  and  wine-glasses  are  preserved  by 
the  old  Holland  Masonic  Lodge  of  New  York.  The  quality 

^  Complete  ship  lists  of  immigrants  to  Maryland  have,   unfortunately, 
not  been  preserved. 


THE   EARLY   GERMANS  173 

of  his  mirrors  is  said  to  be  unsurpassed  even  at  the  present 
day/ 

The  names  of  other  large  settlements  of  Germans,  not 
already  mentioned,  in  Frederick  and  neighboring  counties, 
were  Middleton,  Sharpsburg,  Taney  town,  Tom's  Creek, 
Point  Creek,  Owen's  Creek,  Union  Bridge,  Emmettsburg, 
Woodsboro,  Hauvers,  and  Mechanicstown.  During  the 
period  of  westward  migration  the  Germans  of  Western 
Maryland  found  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  very  easy  of 
access.  Tif&n  and  Dayton,  Ohio,  were  long  the  favorite 
points  for  settlement  by  the  Germans  of  Frederick  County. 

The  westernmost  settlements  of  Maryland  were  Conogo- 
cheague  and  Hagerstown,  both  of  them  German  colonies. 
Conogocheague  was  near  the  present  town  of  Clear  Spring, 
seven  or  eight  miles  southwest  of  Hagerstown,  in  Washing- 
ton County.  The  first  regular  German  Reformed  pastor  was 
the  Reverend  Theodore  Frankenfeld,  who  served  this,  as 
well  as  the  congregation  at  Frederick  Town,  from  1753  to 
1755.  The  founder  of  Hagerstown  was  another  of  those 
strong  personalities  of  the  settlement  period,  Jonathan 
Hager,^  who  emigrated  from  Germany  prior  to  1739.   He 

1  Schultz,  p.  17.  Amelung  removed  his  plant  to  Baltimore  in  1796.  See 
Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland, 
p.  81. 

2  A  good  account  of  Jonathan  Hager's  public  services  in  advancing  the 
economic  interests  of  his  section  of  country  is  found  in  an  article  by  Basil 
Sellers,  "  Jonathan  Hager,  the  founder  of  Hagerstown,"  in  the  Second  An- 
nual Report  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland,  1887- 
1888,  pp.  17-30.  Very  interesting  also  is  the  contest  over  the  question, 
whether  Hager  should  be  permitted  to  take  his  seat  in  the  assembly  of  Mary- 
land, after  being  duly  elected  by  his  district.  He  was  at  first  declared  ineli- 
gible (being  foreign  born,  though  a  naturalized  citizen)  by  a  vote  of  twenty- 
four  to  twenty-three.  A  new  law  was  made  for  him,  representing  the  cause 
of  naturalized  citizens,  whereupon  he  was  permitted  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
first  assembly,  to  which  he  had  been  elected.  Hager  was  reelected,  and  the 
contest  was  renewed  the  following  year,  but  no  action  was  taken  removing 
him.    He  was  placed  on  several  committees. 


174  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

took  out  land  patents  aggregating  in  all  twenty-five  hun- 
dred acres,  two  hundred  of  which  he  obtained  December 
16,  1739.  In  1762  he  laid  out  a  town  which  he  named 
Elizabeth  in  honor  of  his  wife,  which  name  he  used  in 
all  legal  documents.  The  popular  name,  Hager's  Town, 
however,  displaced  the  founder's  favorite.  In  1775  the 
place  contained  over  one  hundred  houses,  in  1807  they 
were  increased  to  three  hundred,  exclusive  of  the  public 
buildings,  courthouse,  jail,  etc.,  Hagerstown  being  the 
county  seat.  Among  the  names  of  the  pioneer  settlers  in 
these  westernmost  colonies  were  the  following :  Prather, 
Poe  (both  families  famed  as  Indian  fighters),  Startzman, 
Snevely,  Stull,  Wolgamot  (probably  Wolgemut),  Burhartz, 
Elwick,  Kendrick,  Shryock,  Hauser,  etc. 

An  interesting  historical  situation  was  developed  in 
connection  with  the  disputed  boundary  between  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania.^  Lord  Baltimore  claimed  correctly  that 
his  territory  extended  to  the  fortieth  parallel,  and  accord- 
ingly issued  grants  included  in  this  territory.  Difficulties 
arose,  culminating  in  border  warfare.  The  fierce  Indian 
fighter,  Cresap  (he  who  was  accused  subsequently  of  mur- 
dering the  family  of  the  Indian  chief  Logan),  made  an 
organized  attempt  to  drive  back  the  German  settlers  from 
Pennsylvania,  who  had  settled  west  of  the  Susquehanna. 
These  settlers,  believing  that  they  belonged  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, organized  for  resistance,  and,  aided  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania government,  captured  Cresap,  who,  when  taken 
to  Philadelphia  a  prisoner,  said  scornfully  :  "  This  is  the 
finest  city  in  the  province  of  Maryland."  Though  Cresap 
was  right  at  the  time,  the  charter  of  Maryland  clearly 

1  Cf.  Hennighausen,  "  Die  Revolte  der  Deutschen  gegen  die  Regierung  in 
Maryland,  "  Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Ger- 
mans in  Maryland,  pp.  45-59. 


THE  EARLY  GERMANS  175 

defining  the  fortieth  parallel  as  Maryland's  northern 
boundary  (and  Philadel23hia  being  to  the  south  of  the 
fortieth  parallel),  still  the  ease  was  soon  decided  other- 
wise by  the  boundary  survey  known  as  Mason  and  Dixon's 
Line  (1766),  which  deprived  Maryland  unjustly  of  two 
million  acres. 

Some  of  the  German  colonial  families  were  especially 
influential  in  the  affairs  of  the  state  and  of  the  nation. 
Such  were  the  Schleys.  One  of  the  sons  of  Thomas  Schley, 
the  schoolmaster,  was  Jacob,  a  captain  in  the  Revolution. 
A  grandson,  William  Schley,  was  a  member  of  Congress 
and  governor  of  Georgia,  where  Schley  County  was  named 
after  him.  John,  his  brother,  sat  upon  the  supreme  bench 
in  Georgia,  while  another  brother  rose  likewise  to  eminent 
judicial  positions.  Henry  Schley,  father  of  Dr.  Fairfax 
Schley  (in  Baltimore),  was  born  in  Frederick  in  1793 
(died  1871) ;  he  participated  in  the  battles  of  Bladensburg 
and  North  Point  in  1814,  and  then  returned  to  Frederick 
as  one  of  its  foremost  citizens.  William  Schley,  born  in 
Frederick,  1799,  removed  to  Baltimore  and  became  a  dis- 
tinguished member  of  the  Baltimore  bar.  He  preferred 
the  profession  of  the  law  to  public  office,  and  after  his 
retirement  from  the  state  senate,  took  no  active  part  in 
politics.  The  family  has  reared  also  a  national  hero,  Win- 
field  Scott  Schley,  the  rescuer  of  the  Greely  Arctic  Expe- 
dition, commander  of  the  flying  squadron  in  the  Spanish 
War,  and  at  the  battle  of  Santiago  in  immediate  command 
of  the  fleet  that  destroyed  Cervera's  squadron.  Concern- 
ing the  Brunner,  Steiner,^  Getzendanner  (Kitchadanner), 

'  The  Baltimore  branch  of  the  Steiner  family  furnished  the  first  librari- 
ans of  the  Enoch  Pratt  Free  Library.  Dr.  Louis  H.  Steiner  was  the  first 
librarian,  and  his  son,  Bernard  C.  Steiner,  succeeded  him.  Under  their 
charge  the  library  has  become  one  of  the  most  useful  circulating  libraries 
in  the  country. 


176  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

Kemp,  Albaugh,  and  Poe  *  families,  who  were  numerous  and 
influential  in  Western  Maryland,  Baltimore,  and  through- 
out the  state,  local  histories  furnish  abundant  materials. 

It  has  been  shown  in  the  preceding  pages  that  in  the 
eighteenth  century  the  Germans  of  Maryland  were  grouped 
mainly  about  two  centres.  Western  Maryland  and  Balti- 
more. In  the  latter  they  advanced  materially  the  commer- 
cial and  industrial  interests  of  the  city,  contributing  largely 
to  Baltimore's  passing  her  rival,  the  older  port  of  Anna- 
polis. In  Western  Maryland  the  Germans  were  mainly  de- 
voted to  agricultural  pursuits,  forming  a  link  in  the  chain 
of  German  farms  between  Pennsylvania  and  the  Valley  of 
Virginia.  Others  founded  the  westernmost  settlements  in 
the  state,  becoming  the  defenders  of  the  frontier. 

1  The  Poe  family  were  noted,  as  before  mentioned,  as  Indian  fighters  on 
the  frontier  ;  in  Baltimore  City,  members  of  the  family  are  leaders  of  the 
Baltimore  bar.  A  relic  of  the  fighting  spirit  survived  in  the  young  Poes, 
who  on  the  football  field,  always  playing  for  Princeton,  annually  filled  Yale 
sympathizers  with  terror  ;  their  combination  of  pluck,  daring,  and  skill  fre- 
quently snatched  victory  from  defeat  during  the  last  few  minutes  of  play. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    GERMANS    IN    VIRGINIA 

Earliest  settlement  at  Germanna,  1714  —  Governor  Spotswood's  iron-works 

—  Settlements  at  Germantown,  Virginia,  and  elsewhere  on  the  Pied- 
mont Plateau  —  Expedition  of  Governor  Spotswood  to  the  mountains  — 
German  settlements  in  the  Valley  of   Virginia,  beginning  in  1726-27 

—  The  Shenandoah  Valley  receives  the  tide  of  immigration  coming 
from  Pennsylvania  —  Settlements  pushing  toward  the  southern  slope 
of  the  Valley,  and  through  the  gaps  in  the  mountains  —  Germans  in 
other  parts  of  Virginia  —  The  journeys  of  Moravian  missionaries  along 
the  frontier. 

According  to  the  popular  impression  Virginia  was  set- 
tled entirely  by  the  English  stock.  It  is  indeed  true  that 
the  latter  form  a  larger  percentage  in  the  population  of 
Virginia  than  they  do  of  most  other  states,  and  that  the 
people  of  Tidewater  Virginia  are  almost  exclusively  of 
English  origin.  But  on  the  other  hand,  there  are,  even  in 
Virginia,  districts,  such  as  the  Piedmont  slope,  and  the 
whole  area  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  where  the  percent- 
age of  the  English  stock  among  the  early  colonists  was 
very  small,  the  German  and  Scotch -Irish  predominating. 
Kercheval,^  the  historian  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  long 
ago  called  attention  to  the  large  Pennsylvania  German 
settlements  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  Schuricht,^ 
more  recently,  showed  that  the  early  Germans  of  Virginia, 
as  well  as  the  German  immigrations  of  the  nineteenth 

1  Samuel  Kercheval,  History  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  (Woodstock,  Va., 
1850,  second  edition.) 

2  History  of  the  German  Element  in  Virginia.  By  Hermann  Schuricht.  2 
vols.,  published  by  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland. 
(Baltimore,  1900.) 


178  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

century,  had  a  far  more  important  share  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  state  than  was  ever  thought  possible.  Schu- 
richt's  work,  however,  is  full  of  inaccuracies,  and  has  been 
revised,  supplemented,  and  in  some  measure  done  over 
by  several  more  recent  writers  on  the  history  of  the  Ger- 
man element  of  Virginia/ 

The  earliest  German  settlement  in  Virginia  was  made 
under  the  auspices  of  Governor  Spotswood,  favorably  dis- 
\  posed  toward  colonists,  and  appreciative  of  the  value  of 
khe  Germans  as  settlers.  In  imitation  of  Pe?i?2sylvania,  a 
large  county  of  Virginia  was  named  /Spotsylvania  in  honor 
of  the  governor.  Within  this  district  (now  in  Orange 
County)  he  founded  the  town  Germanna.  The  first  colon- 
ists consisted  of  twelve  German  families  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  who  arrived  in  Virginia  in  April,  1714.  They 
came  on  the  solicitation  of  Baron  de  Graff  en  ried,"  to  es- 
tablish and  operate  for  Governor  Spotswood  the  iron- 
works which  they  built  about  ten  miles  northwest  of  the 
present  town  of  Fredericksburg.  The  names  of  the  heads 
of  the  families  were  John  Kemper,^  Jacob  Holtzclaw,  J. 
and  H.  Fischback,  Hoffman,  Otterback  (Utterback),  Dil- 

1  Their  articles  have  appeared  in  the  Virginia  Magazine,  vols,  ix-xili,  and  are 
continuing  to  appear.  Most  important  are  the  articles  of  J.  W.  Wayland, 
"  The  Germans  of  the  Valley,"  in  the  Virginia  Magazine  of  History  and 
Biography,  vol.  ix,  pp.  337-353;  vol.  x,  pp.  33-48  and  113-130.  (Richmond, 
1902.)  Also  the  articles  of  C.  E.  Kemper,  and  the  notes  of  William  G.  Stan- 
ard,  the  editor  of  the  Virginia  Magazine.  On  the  basis  of  these  researches 
we  can  come  to  very  definite  conclusions  about  the  early  Germans  in  Vir- 
ginia, though  the  investigations  made  are  not  exhaustive.  Much  remains  to 
be  done,  while  a  great  deal  undoubtedly  has  simk  into  hopeless  obscurity. 

^  See  Chapter  vni,  pp.  213  ff. 

^  John  Kemper  was  born  at  Muesen,  and  died  in  Virginia  between  1754 
and  1759.  W^e  are  indebted  for  the  facts  about  the  Germanna  settlement 
to  W.  M.  Kemper.  Cf.  Kemper  and  Wright,  editors.  Genealogy  of  the  Kemper 
Family  in  the  United  States,  descendants  of  John  Kemper  of  Virginia,  with 
a  short  historical  sketch  of  his  family  and  of  the  German  Reformed  colony  at 
Germanna  and  Germantown,  Virginia,  (Chicago,  1899.) 


iM 


^^Hf 


"•■^S^, 


"f/rots 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  179 

man  Weber  (Tillman  Weaver),  Merdten  (Martin),  Hitt, 
Counts  (Coons),  Wayman,  Han(d)bach.  The  colonists 
came  from  Muesen  and  Siegen,  Nassau-Siegen,  in  West- 
phalia. They  had  been  skilled  iron-workers  for  generations 
past,  Muesen  having  been  an  important  iron  centre  since 
1300.  Several  groups  of  German  settlers  followed  :  twenty 
families,  about  eighty  persons,  in  1717,  and  forty  families 
between  1717  and  1720.  Governor  Spotswood  built  small 
houses  to  shelter  the  colonists,  and  apparently  pushed  the 
work  at  the  mines.  The  latter  have  been  described  in 
bright  coloring  by  the  pen  of  Colonel  Byrd.^  A  recent 
statistical  work  confirms  the  antiquity  of  Governor  Spots- 
wood's  enterprise  :  "  The  oldest  furnace  of  which  we  have 
any  certain  knowledge  was  '  Spotswood '  in  the  County 
Spotsylvania."  ^  Whether  the  governor  lacked  capital,  or 
whether  there  were  unforeseen  difficulties,  is  not  known, 
but  the  mining  operations  did  not  continue  long.  In  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Colonel  Byrd  informs 
us,  "  Germanna  consisted   of  the  residence  of  Governor 

^  The  Westover  Manuscript,  printed  by  Edmund  and  Julian  Ruffin,  Peters- 
burg, Va.,  1841.  Colonel  Byrd,  the  founder  of  Richmond,  Va.,  was  interested 
in  procuring  German  colonists  for  a  section  of  country  on  the  Roanoke 
River.  For  this  purpose  he  wrote  a  book  in  praise  of  the  "New  Garden  of 
Eden,"  as  he  called  it,  and  had  it  translated  into  German  and  circulated 
abroad.  Its  title  was  Neti  gefundenes  Eden,  oder  ausfiihrUcher  Bericht  von 
Sud  u.  Nord  Carolina,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  und  Virginia.  In  Truck  ver- 
fertigt  durch  Befelch  der  Helvetischen  Societiit  1737.  Republished  in  Der 
Westen,  Chicago,  Illinois,  November  6,  1892,  and  January  29,  1893. 

On  Colonel  Byrd's  testimony,  the  wife  of  Governor  Spotswood  was  a  Ger- 
man woman  born  in  Hannover,  named  Theke,  which  would  give  another 
motive  for  Spotswood's  interest  in  the  Germans.  The  historian  Campbell 
denies  that  Spotswood  married  a  German  wife,  but  gives  her  name  as  Anna 
Butler  Bryan.  Cf.  also  Dictionary  of  American  Biography,  vol.  xiii,  p.  388. 

^  Handbook  of  Virginia.  By  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture.  (Fifth  edi- 
tion, p.  82,  Richmond,  Virginia,  1886.)  At  the  present  time  iron  ore  is  still 
produced  here  by  the  Wilderness  Mining  Company,  five  miles  south  from 
Parker  Station. 


180  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Spotswood  and  a  dozen  and  a  half  of  half-decayed  houses, 
formerly  occupied  by  German  families."  The  records 
show  that  some  of  the  German  colonists,  being  engaged 
in  a  lawsuit  with  the  governor,  prayed  for  an  attorney  to 
represent  their  side  of  the  question.  Spotswood  explained 
his  position  at  length,  declaring  that  the  colonists  owed 
him  money  for  their  transportation  and  keep ;  the  colon- 
ists, on  the  other  hand,  held  that  their  period  of  service 
was  ended,  and  claimed  land.^  We  have  no  information 
as  to  the  adjustment  of  the  matter,  but  we  know  that  all 
the  German  colonists,  except  three  families,  had  departed 
from  Germanna  in  1748,  the  year  in  which  the  Moravian 
missionary,  Gottschalk,  visited  the  Great  Fork  of  the  Rap- 
pahannock. 

Two  important  German  settlements  were  established  by 
the  immigrants  from  Germanna,  the  first  being  called 
Germantown.  The  original  colonists  of  the  German  Re- 
formed faith  founded  this  village  about  1721,  "  because 
Governor  Spotswood  refused  to  sell  them  the  land  on 
which  they  were  settled  at  Germanna."  A  deed  dated  Au- 
gust 22,  1724,  was  made  out  by  the  proprietors  of  the 
Northern  Neck  of  Virginia  in  favor  of  Jacob  Holtzclaw, 
J.  Fischback,  and  J.  H.  Hoffman.  Germantown  was  located 
along  the  Licking  Run,  about  ten  miles  from  the  Little 
Fork  of  the  Rappahannock,  where  there  had  settled  another 
group  of  the  original  Germanna  settlers,  the  German  Re- 
formed who  had  originally  come  from  Westphalia.  Both 
places  in  1748  had  built  churches  and  schoolhouses,  the 

*  The  petitioners,  Zerichias  Fleschman  and  Georg  Utz  (for  themselves 
and  fourteen  other  High  Germans),  belonged  to  the  second  colony,  which 
came  to  Germanna  in  1717.  They  were  Lutherans,  who  subsequently,  about 
1724,  settled  in  Madison  County.  They  begged  for  an  attorney,  on  the  gov- 
ernor's order  for  their  arrest.  They  stated  that  the  governor  refused  to  give 
them  a  copy  of  the  agreement  they  made  with  him. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  181 

reader^  of  Germantown  being  old  Mr.  Holzklo  (Jacob 
Holtzclaw),  and  of  the  Little  Fork,  John  Jung.  They 
could  not  afford  a  minister  in  these  early  days  and  the 
Moravian  missionaries  naturally  found  an  "  open  door."  ^ 
Brother  Gottschalk  speaks  of  these  places  in  a  much  more 
kindly  manner  than  of  the  Lutheran  settlements,  which, 
being  supplied  with  ministers,  did  not  receive  the  mission- 
aries so  cordially.  "  A  very  fine,  neighborly,  and  friendly 
people  "  ;  and  "  the  people  did  not  look  so  much  upon  re- 
ligion, but  rather  that  Christ  be  preached  to  them,"  were 
Gottschalk's  comments  on  the  Germantown  settlers.  Brother 
Schnell,  another  Moravian  missionary,  visited  Holzklo  in 
1734.  On  Sunday  the  Reverend  Mr.  Schnell  preached  to 
about  one  hundred  persons,  in  a  "  neat  church."  He  was 
offered  a  parsonage,  one  hundred  acres  of  land  and  a  gar- 
den, and  the  promise  that  they  would  not  allow  him  to 
suffer  want  in  other  directions  if  he  would  only  stay  and 
preach.  Germantown  was  situated  in  the  present  Fauquier 
County,  about  nine  miles  south  of  Warrington,  on  the 
Licking  Run. 

The  German  Lutherans  of  Germannawho  came  in  1717, 
migrated  to  what  is  now  Madison  County,  Virginia,  form- 
ing the  second  important  settlement.  These  "upper  Ger- 
mans" were  more  numerous.  In  1748  there  were  eighty 
families,  mostly  from  Wiirtemberg,  within  a  circle  of  a 
few  miles,  that  had  "  a  beautiful  large  church  and  school 
and  also  a  parsonage  and  a  glebe  of  several  hundred  acres 

'  Readers  were  frequently  schoolmasters,  who,  in  the  absence  of  ministers, 
would  at  regular  intervals  read  to  the  settlers  printed  sermons,  or  passages 
from  the  Scriptures,  in  lieu  of  preaching  a  sermon. 

'  A  phrase  used  by  the  missionaries.  Cf .  Moravian  Diaries  of  Travels 
through  Virginia,  edited  by  the  Reverend  W.  J.  Hinke  and  Charles  E. 
Kemper,  published  in  the  Virginia  Magazine,  voh.  xi  and  xii.  These  diaries 
are  documents  of  historical  value,  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Mora- 
vian church  at  Bethlehem. 


182  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

with  seven  negroes  who  must  cultivate  the  minister's  land." 
These  colonists  removed  from  Germanna  prior  to  1724, 
and  settled  in  the  forks  of  the  Conway  and  Robinson 
rivers.  In  1737  they  numbered  three  hundred  souls,  and 
in  1740  built  Hebron  Church,  one  of  the  oldest  churches  in 
Virginia,  used  by  the  Lutherans  continuously.  It  stands  on 
a  beautiful  eminence  in  the  forks  of  the  Robinson  River 
and  White  Oak  Run.  Reverend  John  Caspar  Stoever  was 
their  first  minister.*  He  went  abroad  to  procure  funds 
for  the  building  of  his  church,  and  was  very  successful. 
He  collected  about  three  thousand  pounds,  and  after  the 
building  of  the  "Hopeful  Evangelic  Lutheran  Church" 
at  Hebron,  a  surplus  was  left  for  which  seven  hundred 
acres  of  land  were  purchased  and  a  number  of  slaves. 
This  latter  circumstance  has  frequently  been  looked  upon 
as  a  blot  on  the  history  of  the  early  Germans  of  Virginia, 
for  everywhere  else  they  stanchly  opposed  slavery.  Prob- 
ably this  purchase  was  made  under  the  influence  of  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Klug,  the  successor  of  Pastor  Stoever,  the 
latter  not  being  destined  to  reap  the  fruits  of  his  labors. 
The  Reverend  Mr.  Klug  was  a  very  energetic  individual, 
extending  the  Lutheran  affiliation  far  into  the  Shenandoah 
Valley.  A  very  different  type  of  man  from  Muhlenberg 
or  Schlatter,  he  was  given  to  the  evil  habits  of  his  time, 
jmrticularly  to  drinking,  for  which,  no  doubt,  he  found 
plenty  of  examples  among  his  well-to-do  friends,  the 
colonial  gentry,  with  whom  he  consorted.  He  was  not 
accustomed  to  plain  living  as  an  incentive  to  high  think- 
ing, and  confessed  generously  to  one  of  the  Moravian 
missionaries  that  he  was  no  Pietist,  gratuitous  information, 

*  Cf.  Dr.  Slaughter's  History  of  St.  Markh  Parish,  pp.  45-46;  Bishop 
Meade's  Old  Churches  and  Families  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  74-76;  Journal 
of  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society,  vol.  ii,  nos.  1,  2,  and  3. 


THE  GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  183 

in  the  face  of  stories  current  about  the  minister's  tipsy 
rides  homeward  from  functions  not  ministerial.  Mr.  Klug 
was  not  an  eloquent  preacher,  but  a  worldly-wise  man  of 
affairs,  whose  actions  were  directed  by  policy,  who  clung 
to  the  strong  and  successful  element.  His  predecessor, 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Stoever,  had  already  made  good  begin- 
nings, providing  church  organization  and  joining  the 
Virofinia  German  Lutheran  communities  of  Fredericks- 
burg,  Newmarket,  Strasburg,  Winchester,  Woodstock, 
etc.,  with  the  Lutheran  Synod  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
Hebron  Church  in  Madison  is  still  in  existence,  and  prizes 
among  its  rare  possessions  some  antique  sacred  vessels 
received  from  friends  in  Germany,  and,  more  highly  still, 
a  German  organ  imported  more  than  one  hundred  years 
ago  and  transported  from  Philadelphia  on  ox-drays.  A 
succeeding  clergyman,  William  Zimmerman,  introduced 
the  English  language  into  the  German  service  at  Hebron, 
and  anglicized  likewise  his  own  name  into  Carpenter.^ 

We  shall  now  leave  the  settlements  on  the  Piedmont 
Plateau  to  consider  another  and  stronger  current  of  immi- 
gration, namely  that  into  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem,  there  was  no  movement  from  east  to  west, 
from  the  lowlands  of  Virginia  to  the  western  or  higher 
portions,  as  there  was  in  some  other  states,  but  the  migra- 
tion came  from  the  north,  from  Pennsylvania,  moving 
southwestwardly  through  the  mountain  valleys  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  growing  in  such  proportions  as  to  be  forced  to 
send  tributaries  in  an  easterly  direction. 

Alexander  Spotswood,  governor  of  Virginia  from  1710 
to  1723,  during  which  period  he  greatly  improved  the 
condition  of  his  province  by  wise  legislation  and  able  ad- 

^  A  name  which  is  found  also  in  the  early  history  of  Kentucky,  borne  by 
members  of  the  minister's  family. 


184  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

ministration,  made  the  first  organized  effort  to  extend  the 
frontier  line  beyond  the  Appalachian  Mountains.  He  was 
not  the  first  white  man  to  see  the  Valley.  The  topography 
was  surely  known  in  1705/  and  even  earlier  through  Lede- 
rer's  explorations  in  1670.  But  the  great  range  of  moun- 
tains that  stretched  from  northeast  to  southwest  seemed 
like  an  impassable  barrier  to  American  colonists.  What 
lay  beyond,  no  one  was  certain  of.  Governor  Spotswood 
was  determined  to  increase  his  knowledge  of  the  geography 
of  his  colony,  entertaining  the  vain  hope  perhaps  of  find- 
in  sf  one  of  the  Great  Lakes  within  view  of  the  summits 
of  the  Blue  Ridge.  Accordingly  he  gathered  about  him 
an  exploring  party  consisting  of  nine  of  his  personal  friends, 
a  band  of  tried  rangers,  and  four  Indian  guides.  They 
were  well  provided  with  provisions  and  plentifully  also 
with  invigorating  drinks.  They  frequently  encamped  to 
lighten  their  baggage,  and  made  great  fires  and  hunted 
game.  The  itinerary  of  the  party  was  presumably  as  fol- 
lows :  From  Germantown,  ten  miles  below  the  Falls  of  the 
Rappahannock,  they  started  on  the  29th  of  August,  1716; 
then  proceeding  to  Germanna,  and  following  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rapidan.  They  crossed  that  river  near  Peyton's 
Ford,  passing  by  the  present  site  of  Stanardsville,  in  Greene 
County.  They  entered  the  foothills  of  the  Blue  Ridge  by 
way  of  Swift  Run  Gap.  On  a  bright  day  of  early  Septem- 

'  The  general  topography  of  the  Valley  being  known  as  early  as  1705, 
Governor  Spotswood  and  his  party  were  not  the  first  white  men  to  enter  or 
look  upon  that  region.  (  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  xiii,  p.  113.)  The  first  legis- 
lative recognition  of  the  country  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  appears  to  have 
been  in  1705,  when  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  passed  an  act  for  free 
and  open  trade  with  the  Indians,  and,  among  other  provisions,  it  was  enacted 
that  any  person  who  should  make  discovery  of  "  any  town  or  nation  of  In- 
dians situated  or  inhabiting  to  the  westward  of  or  between  the  Appalachian 
Mountains,  should  have,  for  the  space  of  fourteen  years,  the  sole  right  to 
trade  with  them."  Hening's  Statutes,  vol.  iii,  pp.  468-469. 


THE  GERMANS   IN   VIRGINIA  185 

ber,  from  a  mountain  height  which  had  just  been  ascended, 
the  view  of  the  Valley  suddenly  broke  upon  the  governor, 
who  was  riding  somewhat  in  advance  of  his  troop.  The 
broad  Valley,  untouched  by  human  hand,  lay  before  him, 
in  its  original  splendor,  the  Shenandoah^  River  winding 
its  silvery  course  through  groves  and  tall  grasses,  and  to- 
ward the  north,  spurs  of  the  Massanutten  Range  projected 
into  the  Valley.  The  governor  and  his  merry  company 
were  well  satisfied  with  the  view,  descended  to  the  Shen- 
andoah and  forded  the  stream  several  miles  below  the 
historic  village  of  Port  Republic.  That  the  j)arty  crossed 
the  Valley  and  passed  on  westward  to  the  Alleghany 
Range,  striking  it  where  now  is  Pendleton  County  in 
West  Virginia,  is  a  matter  of  conjecture."  The  company 
at  all  events,  did  not  tarry  long  in  the  Valley.  On  their 
return,  the  governor,  so  the  story  is  told,  founded  the 
order  of  the  '*  Knights  of  the  Golden  Horseshoe,"  ^  be- 
stowing upon  each  of  his  fellow  travelers  a  miniature  golden 
horseshoe,  with  the  inscription,  *'Sic  juvat  transcendere 
montes,"  *^  which  signified  that  it  would  help  to  pass  over 
the  mountains."  *  No  immediate  results  followed,  though 

1  The  translation  of  Shenandoah,  "  Daughter  of  the  Stars,"  is  probably 
incorrect.  It  is  an  Iroquoian  name,  derived  from  the  name  of  an  Oneida 
Indian  chief.   Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  xiii,  p.  119. 

^  The  only  early  account  of  this  expedition  known  to  be  in  existence  is 
contained  in  the  journal  of  John  Fontaine,  which  appears  in  the  work  en- 
titled "  Memoirs  of  a  Huguenot  Family,"  reprinted  in  Slaughter's  History 
of  St.  Mark's  Parish,  pp.  39-41. 

^  For  historical  confirmation  of  the  foundation  of  the  order  see  Virginia 
Magazine,  vol.  xiii,  p.  125.  Another  translation  of  the  inscription  reads  : 
"  Thus  it  is  a  pleasure  to  cross  the  Mountains." 

*  This  expedition  is  notable  because  it  was  the  first  organized  effort  made 
by  any  of  the  colonies  to  extend  the  frontier  line  beyond  the  Appalachian 
Mountains.  Governor  Spotswood  desired  to  check  the  rising  power  of  the 
French  in  the  West,  and  also  to  discover  the  sources  of  the  Virginia  rivers. 
He  likewise  wished  to  establish  friendly  relations  with  the  Indians  to  the 
westward.    Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  xiii,  note  to  p.  114. 


186  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

all  the  knights  that  took  part  in  the  jaunt  were  loud  in 
their  praises  of  the  new  country.  The  trip  had  been  seri- 
ously undertaken  by  the  governor  in  the  hope  of  extend- 
ing the  frontier  and  encouraging  immigration  toward  the 
western  part  of  the  colony  of  Virginia.  Ten  years  elapsed, 
however,  before  the  first  settler  arrived  in  the  Valley. 

The  Valley  of  Virginia  lies  between  two  mountain 
ranges,  the  North  Mountain  or  the  Alleghanies,  and  the 
South  Mountain  or  Blue  Ridge,  both  ranges  running  from 
northeast  to  southwest,  and  forming  the  westernmost 
physiographical  section  of  the  state  of  Virginia.  The  Val- 
ley is  divided  into  two  sections  with  a  slope  to  the  north 
and  another  to  the  south,  the  highest  portion  being  in  the 
present  county  of  Rockbridge,  and  the  divide  approxi- 
mately denoted  by  a  line  running  through  the  town  of 
Lexington.  The  more  fruitful  section  toward  the  north  is 
drained  by  the  Shenandoah  River,  whose  two  forks  nearly 
surround  the  picturesque  Massanutten  Range,  until  they 
unite  at  Front  Royal,  and  after  a  total  course  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  miles,  empty  into  the  Potomac  near 
Harper's  Ferry.  The  Massanutten  range  does  not  divide 
the  Valley  equally ;  it  lies  nearer  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  is 
about  forty  miles  in  length,  ending  at  Strasburg.  Then 
the  Opequon  River  becomes  the  boundary-line  of  counties, 
separating  Frederick  and  Berkeley  from  Clarke  and  JefPer- 
son,  as  the  Massanutten  Range  had  separated  Shenandoah 
from  Warren  and  Page.  Farther  up  the  Valley  are  the 
counties  of  Rockingham,  Augusta,  and  Rockbridge,  ex- 
tending from  mountain  to  mountain.  The  southern  slope 
of  the  Valley  is  drained  on  the  east  by  the  headwaters  of 
the  James  and  Roanoke,  on  the  west  by  the  New  River, 
a  tributary  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  that  opens  the  territory 
of   West  Virginia  toward  the  Ohio.  Still  farther  to  the 


THE  GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  187 

south  the  Valley  is  drained  by  the  headwaters  of  the 
Tennessee,  by  the  Clinch  and  Holston  rivers,  where  the 
first  settlements  of  Tennessee  were  located,  affording  a 
gateway  to  the  territory  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 

The  average  breadth  of  the  Valley  is  from  twenty  to 
thirty  miles,  and  the  length  over  three  hundred.  It  is  the 
natural  avenue  of  communication  between  north  and  south, 
between  Pennsylvania  and  Tennessee  or  Kentucky,  and 
had  long  been  so,  before  those  territorial  names  were 
known.  The  Indian  hunters  and  war-parties  had  long  ago 
beaten  a  trail  through  the  Valley,  the  white  hunters  fol- 
lowing in  their  tracks ;  then  came  the  men  of  axe  and 
rifle ;  and  finally  the  patient  settler,  whose  toil  made  the 
earth  luxuriant  with  grain,  fruit,  and  flowers.  A  great 
highway  for  the  development  of  the  West,  and  South- 
west, by  way  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  was  thus  opened 
before  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  continued  with  ever 
greater  usefulness  thereafter.  The  fertile  Valley,  also  in 
the  later  days  of  the  railroad,  was  destined  to  play  a 
prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  Its  importance 
as  a  granary  for  armies  was  seen  alike  by  the  armies  of 
the  North  and  South  in  the  Civil  War,  the  Valley  of  the 
Shenandoah  becoming  the  bone  of  fiercest  contention  and 
consequently  the  scene  of  some  of  the  bloodiest  fighting 
in  the  whole  war.  The  possession  of  the  Valley  meant 
subsistence ;  it  was  the  key  alike  to  both  capitals,  Wash- 
ington and  Richmond  (through  Lynchburg). 

It  is  now  established  beyond  any  doubt  that  at  least 
the  portion  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley  sloping  to  the  north 
was  almost  entirely  settled  by  Germans.  There  was  but  a  i 
sprinkling  of  the  Scotch-Irish  and  of  French  Huguenots,   '• 
an  English  settlement  being  claimed  only  for  the  dimin-  | 
utive  Clarke  County.  Many  Germans  settled  on  the  south- 


188  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

ern  slope  of  tbe  Valley,  but  it  is  a  commonly  accepted 
fact  that  among  the  early  settlers  in  that  area  there  were 
more  Scotch-Irish  and  Huguenots.  The  story  of  the  first 
settlement  of  the  Valley  is  typical,  full  of  interest,  and, 
since  not  generally  known,  worthy  to  be  followed  in  some 
detail.  All  of  the  first  settlers  were  Germans,*  starting 
almost  without  exception  from  Pennsylvania  and  Mary- 
land, following  the  trails  to  the  Potomac,  crossing  at  or 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Shenandoah  or  the  Opequon  (a 
little  higher  upstream),  and  then  ascending  the  Valley 
between  the  two  mountain  rang-es. 

An  exception  to  this  course  of  settlement  was  the  first 
of  the  pioneers,  Adam  Miiller  (Miller),  who,  following  the 
line  of  Governor  Spotswood's  march,  entered  the  Valley 
through  Swift  Run  Gap,  and  in  1726-27  ^  settled  near  the 
present  site  of  Elkton.  Adam  Miiller  was  born  in  Ger- 
many,^ about  1700,  located  first  in  Lancaster  County, 
Pennsylvania,  but  after  living  there  for  several  years,  de- 

^  The  first  Scotch-Irish  settler  in  the  Valley  was  John  Lewis,  who  in  1732 
located  far  up  the  Valley  near  Staunton.  The  first  deed  of  William  Beverly, 
who  was  very  instrumental  in  getting  Scotch-Irish  settlers  about  his  manor 
(Staunton  District),  was  made  to  John  Lewis  in  1738.  (William  and  Mary 
College  Quarterly,  vol.  iii,  p.  226.)  The  numerous  settlements  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  in  this  county  are  largely  due  to  him. 

^  The  claim  has  been  made  that  Jost  Hite  was  the  first  white  settler  of 
the  Valley,  but  the  naturalization  papers  of  Adam  Miller  prove  that  he  set- 
tled in  the  Shenandoah  in  1726  or  1727.  (Cf .  William  and  Mary  College  Quar- 
terly, vol.  ix,  p.  132.)  The  first  step  to  secure  land  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia 
by  due  process  of  law  was  taken  by  Colonel  Robert  Carter.  The  record  of  a 
tree  bearing  the  inscription  "  R.  C,  1729,"  in  the  Shenandoah  district,  proves 
that  the  land  was  surveyed  as  early  as  that.  Robert  Carter  was  the  agent 
for  many  years  of  the  Fairfax  estate,  and  acquired  lands  second  in  extent 
only  to  his  principal.  He  was  familiarly  called  "  King  Carter,"  and  was  one 
of  the  foremost  men  in  Virginia.  He  died  in  1732. 

^  The  place  of  birth  is  given  in  the  Virginia  Magazine  (see  references  be- 
low) as  Schresoin.  There  is  no  such  place.  It  may  have  been:  Schrehsheim 
in  Bavaria,  Schrezheim  in  Wiirtembere-.  or  Schriesheim  in  Raden. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  189 

termined  to  try  his  fortune  in  Virginia.  He  embarked  at 
the  head  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  and,  coming  to  Williamsburg, 
he  heard,  presumably  from  the  mouth  of  a  "  Knight  of  the 
Golden  Horseshoe,"  of  the  wonderful  country  beyond  the 
Blue  Ridge.  This  he  determined  to  see  with  his  own  eyes, 
and  was  so  well  pleased  with  it  that  he  went  back  to  Penn- 
sylvania to  fetch  his  family.  He  then  settled  near  Swift 
Run  Gap,  his  final  abode  being  on  the  Shenandoah  some 
few  miles  distant  from  his  first  location.  Upon  his  repre- 
sentations, his  former  neighbors  and  friends  in  Penn- 
sylvania joined  him  and  became  settlers  at  Elkton.  Such 
were  undoubtedly  Abram  Strickler,  Mathias  Selzer,  Philip 
Lang  (Long),  Paul  Lang  (Long),  Michael  Rhinehart,  Hans 
Rood, Michael  Kaufman,  and  other  Pennsylvania  "Dutch- 
men" so-called,  who  with  Adam  Miiller  (Miller)  in  1733 
petitioned  for  a  clear  title  to  their  lands  at  Massanutten 
(Indian  name),  which  they  claimed  to  have  bought  for  a 
sum  of  money  amounting  to  upwards  of  four  hundred 
pounds  (five  thousand  acres),  from  Jacob  Stover.*  The 
latter  was  a  later  settler,  but  more  fortunate  in  securing 
a  large  land  grant.  Previous  to  that  Miiller  and  his  asso- 
ciates had  been  squatters  merely.  The  petitioners  were 
located  in  the  southeastern  portion  of  what  is  now  Rock- 
ingham County,  or  the  southwestern  part  of  Page  County, 
along  the  Shenandoah  River,  near  the  Massanutten  Moun- 
tain, and  in  that  year  (1733)  counted  fifty-one  persons, 
young  and  old,  on  nine  plantations.^ 

^  They  claimed  that  they  had  bought  this  land  four  years  before  (1729- 
1730).  They  were  apparently  granted  their  claims,  and  the  suit  of  William 
Beverly  was  dismissed.  Kemper  gives  convincing  evidence  from  court  orders 
that  the  settlement  at  Massanutten  was  the  first  permanent  white  settlement 
in  the  Valley  of  Virginia  and  that  its  date  was  1730  or  1729.  Virginia  Maga- 
zine, vol.  xiii,  pp.  121  £E. 

^  The  facts  about  the  first  settler  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia  have  been  set 
forth  by  a  descendant  of  Adam  Miiller,  Charles  E.  Kemper,  of  Washington, 


190  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Some  distance  above  Harper's  Ferry  there  is  an  ancient 
ford  over  the  Potomac,  once  called  "The  Old  Packhorse 
Ford,"  the  link  between  the  north  country  and  the  Shen- 
andoah Valley.  Indian  hunters  and  warriors  had  passed 
and  repassed  before  the  packhorse  forded  the  stream,  and 
numerous  encounters  must  have  taken  place  there  between 
the  red-skinned  warriors,  of  which  the  innumerable  arrow- 
heads found  in  the  vicinity  bear  witness.  Probably  as 
early  as  1726  or  1727  a  number  of  Pennsylvania  Germans 
crossed  the  ford,  and  near  by,  twelve  miles  above  Har- 
per's Ferry,  founded  a  village  which  they  called  New 
Mecklenburg.^  When  the  place  was  incorjjorated  in  1762, 
it  was  named  Shepherdstown,  in  honor  of  Thomas  Shep- 
herd (Schaefer),  who  had  settled  there  in  1734.  Many  of 
the  most  respected  families  of  Jefferson  County,  West  Vir- 
ginia, trace  their  descent  from  these  original  settlers,  land 
grants  dating  as  far  back  as  1729  being  in  possession  of 
some  of  them.  The  settlers  were  generally  at  first  squat- 
ters, but  in  course  of  time  they  were  compelled  to  buy 
the  lands  they  had  cultivated,  from  some  fortunate  in- 
dividual who  had  received  a  land  grant.  Thus  in  this 
settlement  a  number  of  settlers  bought  the  lands  they 
had  improved  from  a  Welshman,  Richard  A.  Morgan, 
who  received  a  large  land  grant  about  1730. 

In  1732  came  Justus  Heid  (Joist  or  Yost  Hite) "  from 

D.  C.  This  family,  like  so  many  of  the  pre-revolutionary  German  Virginians, 
have  been  closely  linked  with  the  weal  and  woe  of  the  state  throughout  its 
history  and  are  looked  upon  with  pride  and  respect  no  less  than  the  descend- 
ants of  the  cavaliers.  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x,  pp.  84-86;  vol.  ix,  pp.  351- 
352.  (James  Lawson  Kemper,  governor  of  Virginia,  1873-78,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  this  family.) 

1  Noted  as  the  place  where  James  Rumsey  built  the  first  steamboat  in 
1788. 

2  Joist  Hite  was  born  in  Strassburg,  and  the  town  of  that  name  in  the 
Valley  was  probably  named  by  him.  He  died  in  1760,  leaving  a  numerous 


THE  GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  191 

York,  Pennsylvania,  with  his  family,  his  three  sons-in-law 
with  their  families,  and  a  few  others,  among  whom  was 
Peter  Stephan  (Stephens),  in  all  sixteen  families.  They 
crossed  the  "  Cohongoronta  "  (a  spelling  used  in  the  treaty 
of  Lancaster,  the  Indian  name  for  Potomac),  and  settled 
on  the  Opequon  River.  Joist  Hite  settled  five  miles  below 
where  Winchester  now  stands,  his  home  being  on  the 
great  Indian  trail  leading  to  the  upper  parts  of  the  Valley, 
the  same  which  is  now  transformed  into  the  macadamized 
Valley  turnpike.  Jacob  Chrisman  (Christmann)  selected 
for  his  location  a  spring,  two  miles  further  south  on  the 
same  trail,  the  site  being  known  as  Chrisman's  Spring. 
Another  son-in-law,  George  Baumann  (Bowman),  settled 
still  further  up,  on  Cedar  Creek,  and  the  third,  Paul  Froh- 
mann  (Froman),  several  miles  to  the  west  of  Bowman,  also 
on  Cedar  Creek.  Peter  Stephan  with  others  founded  Ste- 
phansburg,  which,  after  several  changes  in  name,  is  now 
called  Stephens  City.  About  the  same  time  the  first  house 
of  Kernstown  was  built  on  the  land  of  Adam  Kern.  One 
of  the  landmarks  of  that  early  period  is  a  hmestone 
house  near  Winchester  (Frederickstown)  built  in  1753,  by 
Colonel  John  Hite  (a  son  of  Joist  Hite),  distinguished 
for  bravery  in  the  Indian  wars.  At  that  time  it  was  con- 
sidered one  of  the  most  elegant  houses  west  of  the  Blue 
Ridge,  and  it  is  still  standing  in  good  preservation. 

Joist  Hite  and  his  followers  purchased  their  lands  from 
a  Dutchman,  John  Vanmeter,  of  whom  the  story  is  told 
that  he  accompanied  a  war-party  of  the  Delawares  against 
their  old  enemies,  the  Catawbas.  A  fierce  battle  was  fought 
about  where  Franklin,  the  present  county-seat  of  Pendle- 

and  highly  respected  posterity.  Joist  Hite  was  responsible  himself  for  the 
confused  spelling  of  his  name.  He  is  said  to  have  signed  it  three  different 
ways  on  the  same  day,  in  the  execution  of  three  different  deeds. 


192  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

ton  County,  "West  Virginia,  now  stands.  The  Delawares 
were  defeated.  On  the  retreat  Vanmeter  beheld  the  rich 
land  of  the  Valley  and  obtained  a  large  grant  from  Gov- 
ernor Gooch,  forty  thousand  acres  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
Valley,  which  he  sold  later  to  Joist  Hite.  The  Vanmeters 
settled  on  the  southern  branch  of  the  Potomac  in  West 
Virginia,  Hampshire  and  Hardy  counties. 

A  large  grant  of  land  was  obtained  as  early  as  1729-30 
by  another  prominent  German  settler,  Jacob  Stauffer  (Sto- 
ver), a  shrewd  man.  It  is  said  that,  in  order  to  procure  a 
large  quantity  of  land,  he  represented  every  head  of  horse 
or  cattle  that  he  possessed  as  the  head  of  a  family  ready  to 
settle  on  the  land.  His  lands  extended  from  the  forks  of 
the  Shenandoah  southwestwardly  along  the  main  branch 
to  Page  County,  comprising  portions  of  three  counties  as 
constituted  at  present.  He  chose  as  his  own  location  the 
northern  end  of  the  Massanutten  Range,  where  he  founded 
Staufferstadt,  later  renamed  Strasburg  by  two  Germans 
from  Alsace. 

The  German,  Robert  Harper,  in  1734,  settled  at  the 
Great  Falls,  the  junction  of  the  Shenandoah  and  Poto- 
mac, and  founded  the  historical  town  of  Harjjer's  Ferry, 
named  in  his  honor  and  describing  his  vocation.  Many 
others  settled  near  by :  Winchester  had  settlers  as  early  as 
1738,  Woodstock  (Millerstown)  was  founded  two  years 
later  by  Jacob  Miiller  (Miller),  and  "originally  laid  out 
upon  a  larger  scale  than  any  other  of  our  ancient  vil- 
lages" (Kercheval).^  Ruffner's  Cave  (near  Luray  Cave) 
commemorates  the  name  of  the  settler  Ruffner  (1745), 
the  son  of  a  German  baron  who  lived  in  Hannover. 

'  "  Woodstock,"  Kercheval  says,  "  like  most  of  our  towns,  was  settled  ex- 
clusively by  Germans,  and  German  (Pennsylvania  German)  was  the  language 
heard  on  the  streets  up  to  1850."  The  same  is  said  to  be  true  of  Strasburg. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  193 

A  tide  ^  of  immigration  swept  up  the  Valley  as  soon  as 
its  fertility  became  known.  Most  of  the  settlers  came  from 
Pennsylvania,  an  additional  incentive  being  the  growing 
hostility  of -the  Indians  on  the  Pennsylvania  frontier.  The 
settlers  believed  they  would  be  better  protected  in  the  Val- 
ley, which  was  guarded  by  mountains  on  two  sides.  After 
Braddock's  defeat  in  1755,  the  migrations  became  still 
more  numerous,  reaching  their  height  after  the  Revolution. 
Villages  were  founded  and  towns  incorporated  in  large 
numbers  by  the  inflowing  population.  Thus  Harrisonburg, 
in  Rockingham  County,  was  established  by  law  in  1780 
and  five  years  later  had  twenty  persons  owning  lots.  Front 
Royal  (Warren  County)  was  incorporated  in  1788,  and  like- 
wise received  a  strong  German  population.  Keezletown 
(the  German  Keizell's  Town)  was  established  in  1791,  near 
Harrisonburg  in  Rockingham  County,  and  became  the  keen 
rival  of  the  latter.^  Mr.  Keizell  laid  out  one  hundred  acres 
of  land  in  lots  and  streets  —  double  the  size  of  Harrison- 
burg —  and  offered  inducements  to  purchasers  who  would 
build  on  these  lots.  During  the  years  1781-84  there  appear 
to   have  been  more  deeds  recorded  for  lots  in  Keizell's 


1  Some  of  the  names  of  German  settlers  during  the  early  half  of  the  cen- 
tury were  :  William  Millars,  William  Strope,  Israel  Friend,  Edward  Lucas, 
James  Foreman,  John  Lemon,  the  Schmuckers,  the  Koiners,  the  Benders, 
Beckers  (Bakers),  Westerhoefers,  Sauers  (Sowers),  Von  Webers,  Cassel- 
manns,  Finks,  Funkhousers,  Molers,  Weiers.  Bernhard  Weier,  a  hunter,  dis- 
covered the  beautiful  Weyer's  Cave  (1804).  The  commissioners  who  valued 
the  lands  of  Rockingham  County  in  1782  found  860  landowners  in  the  county. 
Among  the  largest  landowners  were  the  following  Germans  :  the  Bowmans, 
Conrads,  Coffmans,  Chrismans,  Clicks,  Crotzers,  Fitzwaters,  Bransbergers, 
Risers,  Kislings,  Kooglers,  Kaylors,  Millers,  Minnicks,  Michaels,  Messicks, 
Fences,  Rollers,  Rimels,  Sheetses,  Shumakers,  Shavers,  Shanks,  Vanpelts, 
Wines,  Wingers,  and  Weavers.  Cf .  Way  land,  "  The  Germans  of  the  Valley," 
Virginia  Magazine,  vols,  ix,  x. 

*  Wayland, "  The  Germans  of  the  Valley,"  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x,  p.  43, 
etc. 


194  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Town  than  in  Harrisonburg.  The  consideration  for  con- 
veyance of  a  lot  was  that  the  purchaser  should  build  a  dwell- 
ing-house twenty  by  eighteen  feet,  with  stone  or  brick 
chimneys,  and  make  an  annual  payment  of  four  shillings. 
The  Germans  developed  the  country  not  alone  in  a 
material  way,  i.  e.,  by  making  the  Valley  a  garden ;  they 
were  in  the  front  rank  also  in  every  other  form  of  activity. 
For  example,  among  the  prominent  families  of  Shenandoah 
County  were  the  German  families  the  Neffs,  the  Kageys, 
and  the  Henkels,  who  settled  in  or  near  New  Market. 
The  Reverend  Paul  Henkel  was  the  first  of  the  family 
in  Shenandoah,  coming  soon  after  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Born  near  the  present  city  of  Salisbury,  North  Caro- 
lina, he  was  the  grandson  of  the  Reverend  Gerhard  Henkel, 
who,  previous  to  his  coming  to  America,  was  a  German 
court  preacher.  In  1806  the  Reverend  Ambrose  Henkel, 
son  of  Paul  Henkel,  established  a  printing-house  at  New 
Market,  which  is  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Henkel  family. 
The  oldest  press  of  the  Valley  was  distinguished  also 
for  the  large  amount  of  Lutheran  theological  works  issued.* 
The  Neffs,  of  Swiss  German  descent,  came  from  Pennsyl- 
vania and  many  members  of  the  family  were  distinguished 
in  civil  and  military  life.^  The  Kagey  family  likewise  had 
their  origin  in  German  Switzerland.  Hans  Kagey  settled 
in  Pennsylvania  in  1715.  Henry  Kagey  removed  from 
Lancaster  County  in  1768  and  a  few  years  later  located 
two  miles  east  of  New  Market.   Others  of  the  family  fol- 

•  The  Henkel  Press  supplied  Bibles,  hymn-books,  catechisms,  tracts,  etc., 
for  the  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Tennessee  Lutheran  synods,  besides 
the  less  remote  congregations  of  Virginia. 

^  Cf.  NefE  (Elizabeth  Clifford),  A  Chronicle,  together  with  a  little  romance 
regarding  Rudolf  and  Jacob  Ndf,  of  Frankfort,  Pennsylvania,  and  their  descend- 
ants, including  an  account  of  the  Neffs  in  Switzerland  and  America.  (Cincinnati, 
Ohio.) 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  195 

lowed.  John  Kagey,  eldest  son  of  Henry,  was  a  plain 
Dunker  preacher,  who  led  a  pious  and  exemplary  life.  It 
is  said  that  "  almost  as  good  as  John  Kagey  "  has  been 
an  adage  in  Rockingham  and  Shenandoah  counties  for  the 
last  three  generations.  "  Nobody  could  make  John  Kagey 
do  wrong,  or  break  his  word,"  was  an  article  of  faith  in 
the  generation  in  which  he  lived.  It  is  likewise  interesting 
to  note  that  this  family  of  strong  virtue  produced  an  abo- 
litionist, in  spite  of  its  Southern  environment,  in  the  per- 
son of  John  Henry  Kagi,  John  Brown's  secretary  of  war, 
who  was  killed  at  Harper's  Ferry  in  1859.  He  was  a  great- 
grandson  of  Henry  Kagey. 

The  tide  *  of  immigration  from  Pennsylvania  and  Mary- 
land that  swept  up  the  Valley  before  and  at  the  close  of 
the  Revolution,  produced  a  thickening  of  settlements  and 
a  pushing  on  farther  up  the  Valley.  There  resulted  also 
a  crowding  out  through  the  gaps  of  the  South  Mountain 
into  the  neighboring  counties  of  Virginia  on  the  Piedmont 
Plateau. 

The  southern  slope  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  below  the 
line  of  Lexington,  which  was  at  first  but  sparsely  settled 
by  Germans,  began  to  be  invaded  after  the  Revolution 
by  the  steadily  flowing  stream  of  Germans  from  Penn- 
sylvania and  Maryland.  Representatives  of  all  denomina- 
tions, German  Lutherans,  and  Reformed  Mennonites, 
Dunkers,  etc.,  forced  their  way  up  the  Valley  and  down 
the  other  side,  supplying  with  an  agricultural  population 
the  counties  of  Augusta,  Rockbridge,  Botetourt,  Roanoke, 

*  Names  of  settlers  in  Shenandoah  County  toward  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion were:  the  Tirkles,  Hesses,  Garbers,  Wines,  Myerses,  Fences,  etc.,  located 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Forestville  ;  the  Faltzes,  Halsleys,  Coffelts,  Clines, 
Kellers,  Benders  (Painters),  Bowraans,  Rinkers,  Tysingers,  Empschillers, 
Lantzes,  Stouts,  Wilkinses,  Frys,  Rosenbergers,  and  Lindamoods,  settled  in 
the  vicinity  of  Hamburg. 


196  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

Craig,  Montgomery,  Pulaski,  and  Wythe.  In  Wythe,  Pu- 
laski, Montgomery,  and  Craig  counties  the  Germans  prob- 
ably met  a  number  of  Swiss  who  emigrated  from  North 
Carolina  to  Virginia.  Captain  R.  B.  Moorman,  of  Roanoke, 
says :  ^  "  Rockbridge,  Botetourt,  Roanoke,  Craig,  Mont- 
gomery, and  Pulaski  present  a  grateful  field  to  the  German 
American  historian."  The  German  Lutherans  were  for 
many  years  in  almost  exclusive  possession  of  Salem,  and 
it  is  supposed  that  many  chapels  and  meeting-houses,  at 
one  time  existing  in  the  more  remote  valleys  of  the  moun- 
tains, are  now  lost  to  history. 

Concerning  the  settlements  on  the  southern  slope,  Judge 
B.  Simmons  says:^ 

The  earliest  deeds  to  the  German  element  in  Botetourt  County 
bear  date  from  1783.  The  first,  or  among  the  first  German 
settlers  were  the  Graybills,  Simmons,  Keplers,  Gishs,  Broughs, 
Sniders,  Harshbergers,  Bechmers,  Amens,  and  others.  The 
Amens  now  spell  their  name  "  Ammen."  All  came  in  the 
eighties.  These  Germans  came  into  this  county  directly  after 
the  Revolutionary  War,  from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland, — 
mostly  from  Pennsylvania.  The  German  element  I  think  you 
will  find  came  into  Virginia  about  the  same  time  all  along  up 
the  Valley,  a  great  many  of  them  stopping  in  what  are  now 
Rockingham,  Shenandoah,  and  Augusta,  and  the  lower  counties. 
I  do  not  think  many  of  them  stopped  in  what  is  now  Rockbridge. 
The  Germans  looked  for  good  land,  and  have  as  a  general  rule 
held  on  to  it.  They  evidently  had  money  and  seem  to  have  paid 
cash  for  their  lands,  and  paid  as  much  for  their  lands  then  as 
the  same  lands  are  worth  now.  As  a  rule  the  German  element 
are  frugal,  sturdy,  honest  folk.  For  many  years  they  made  the 
mistake  of  not  educating  ^  their  children ;  but  for  some  years 

1  Quoted  by  Schuricht,  History  of  the  German  Element  in  Virginia. 
^  Quoted  by  Wayland,  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x,  pp.  38-39. 

2  Wayland  writes  a  note  stating  that  the  criticism  pertains  only  to  the 
Dunkards  and  Mennonites,  and  that  most  of  the  Botetourt  Germans  were 


THE  GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  197 

many  of  them  have  been  educating  their  children,  many  of  whom 
are  filling  the  vai'ious  professions  with  ability. 

While  the  writer  quoted  is  guilty  of  several  inaccura- 
cies, particularly  that  concerning  the  settlement  of  the 
entire  Valley  at  about  the  same  time,  still  he  records  an- 
other impression  which  is  striking  and  of  very  great  value. 
"The  Germans  did  not  stop  in  Rockbridge,  they  were 
looking  for  better  lands,"  and  secondly,  "they  had  the 
money  to  pay  for  them."  Their  cash  in  hand  furnishes 
an  additional  explanation  of  their  ability  to  get  a  choice 
of  lands,  to  dispossess  former  settlers  on  good  lands  and 
give  to  their  own  settlements  greater  stability.  Coupled 
with  that,  on  the  road  to  success,  was  their  skill  and  ex- 
perience as  farmers,  which  made  of  indifferent  land  good 
land,  their  economy,  industry,  and  clean  methods  of  con- 
duct, which  gave  their  settlements  permanence  and  tone. 

Fincastle,  the  county-seat  of  Botetourt  County,  was 
incorporated  in  1772.  A  German,  Israel  Christian,  at  that 
time  made  a  present  of  forty  acres  of  land  to  the  justices 
of  the  Botetourt  court  for  the  use  of  the  county,  an  act 
worthy  of  commendation  for  its  public  spirit.  Near  Fin- 
castle, and  probably  about  the  date  of  its  settlement,  the 
village  of  Amsterdam  was  founded  by  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
man Dunkards.^  The  official  survey  of  Amsterdam  was 
made  in  1796.  Deeds  of  conveyance  to  certain  lots  are 
from  George  Stoner  and  wife  "  in  Stonertown,"  but  the 

Duukards.  Moreover  that  now  they  have  a  college  at  Daleville,  Botetourt 
County.  It  should  also  be  added  that  the  native  population  generally  was 
not  well  educated  when  the  Germans  were  not,  and  also  that  ignorance  of 
the  English  language  was  regarded  as  tantamount  to  illiteracy.  The  fron-' 
tiersmen,  of  whatever  nationality,  were  never  in  the  front  rank  in  matters  of 
education  and  religion  ;  they  should  not  be  judged  harshly,  however,  in  view 
of  their  difficulty  in  getting  either  teachers  or  ministers  to  serve  them. 
^  The  same  as  Tunkers  or  Dunkers. 


198  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

surveyor  calls  the  plan  of  the  town  "  A  Map  of  Amster- 
dam." George  Stouer  was  a  German  who  bought  his  land 
on  December  29,  1794,  of  John  Snider,  who  had  bought 
it  two  years  before/ 

In  1795  or  thereabouts  Dr.  George  Daniel  Flohr  was 
pastor  among  the  German  settlements  on  New  River  and 
primarily  at  the  Swiss  colony  of  New  Berne,  Pulaski 
County.  In  Wythe  County,  to  the  southwest  adjoining, 
a  German  Lutheran  church  was  established  in  1792,  on 
land  donated  by  Stophel  Zimmerman  and  John  Davis, 
and  owned  jointly  by  the  Lutherans  and  Reformed.  The 
early  Germans  of  Wythe  County  had  some  means,  and 
were  equally  divided  between  Lutheran  and  Reformed. 
Costly  Bibles  were  preserved  by  them  as  heirlooms.^ 

The  above  facts  show  that  there  was  a  larger  percent- 
age of  Germans  settled  on  the  southern  slope  of  the  Val- 
ley than  is  generally  supposed,  and  that  the  number  con- 
stantly increased  after  the  Revolution.  This  district  is  the 
one  which  was  so  important  in  the  early  settlements  of 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  which,  Theodore  Roosevelt  ex- 
plains,^ was  the  germ-centre  of  the  new  life  which  was  to 
flow  into  the  great  undeveloped  territory  of  Indian  fame, 
the  dark  and  bloody  ground.  Neither  the  Indian  tribes  of 
the  North  nor  of  the  South  dared  to  claim  that  No  Man's 
Land  as  their  own,  and  as  a  result,  the  peerless  hunting- 
grounds  became  the  booty  of  the  white  man,  —  but  not 

^  See  Wayland,  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x,  p.  42. 

^  Additional  churches  were  St.  John's  Lutheran  Church,  one  mile  north 
of  Wytheville,  and  twelve  miles  west,  St.  Paul's  Church.  In  1796  the 
Reverend  Leonard  Willy  became  pastor  of  Cedar  Grove  Church,  in  Smyth 
County,  and  of  Kimberling,  St.  Paul's,  and  St.  John's  in  Wythe  County. 
In  1799  the  Reverend  Dr.  Flohr  was  called  and  located  in  southwestern 
Virginia  several  miles  north  of  Wytheville.  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x, 
p.  123.  See  also  Schuricht,  p.  93  (vol.  i). 

^  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i,  pp.  134  flf. 


THE   GERMANS  IN  VIRGINIA  199 


until  after  one  of  the  fiercest  struggles  known  to  mankind, 
not  one  of  pitched  battles,  but  of  daily  combat  between 
settler  and  savage.  The  part  played  by  the  German  settler 
in  this  struofo-le  has  been  underestimated.  He  was,  if  not 
the  very  first '  in  the  land,  —  a  distinction  claimed  by  the 
Scotch-Irish  and  Huguenot  elements,  —  at  least  closely 
on  the  heels  of  the  first  colonists,  and  very  well  repre- 
sented among  the  first  permanent  settlers  of  Kentucky 
and  the  Southwest. 

Customs  and  speech  the  Germans  brought  with  them 
into  the  Valley,  and  for  a  time  held  to  them  tenaciously. 
When  the  Germans  and  Irish  met,  there  was  often  fric- 
tion, such  as  Kercheval  describes,  e.  g.,  in  the  town  of 
Winchester,  the  capital  of  Frederick  County.  Winchester 
had  a  mixed  population  of  Germans,  Irish,  and  a  few 
Scotch  and  English.  "  It  was  customary  for  the  Dutch  on 
St.  Patrick's  Day,"  says  Kercheval,  "  to  exhibit  the  effigy 
of  the  saint,  with  a  string  of  Irish  potatoes  around  his 
neck,  and  his  wife  Sheeley,  with  her  apron  loaded  also 
with  potatoes.  This  was  always  followed  by  a  riot.  The 
Irish  resented  the  indignity  offered  to  their  saint  and  his 
holy  spouse,  and  a  battle  followed.  On  St.  Michael's  Day 
the  Irish  would  retort,  and  exhibit  the  saint  with  a  rope 
of  sauerkraut  about  the  neck.  Then  the  Dutch,  like  the 
Yankee,  *  felt  chock  full  of  fight,'  and  at  it  they  went, 
pell-mell,  and  many  a  black  eye,  bloody  nose,  and  broken 
head  was  the  result.  The  practice  was  finally  put  down  by 
the  rigor  with  which  the  courts  of  justice  punished  the 
rioters."  But  as  the  two  elements  lived  longer  together, 
with   common    interests,  they  began    to   appreciate  one 

^  In  Chapter  xii,  below,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Germans  sent  quite  a 
considerable  number  even  among  the  first  settlers,  i.  e.,  hunters,  adventurers, 
and  soldiers,  into  Kentucky. 


200  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

another  and  frequently  intermarried.  The  Revolutionary 
War  cut  down  mightily  the  barriers  of  nationality. 

As  the  Valley  became  more  thickly  settled,  the  current 
of  immigration  flowed  not  only  southwestwardly  between 
the  mountain  ranges,  but  also  eastwardly  through  the 
gaps  of  the  mountains,  into  the  counties  lying  at  the  base 
of  South  Mountain.  The  counties  that  received  a  strong 
German  element  were  Loudoun,  Fauquier,  Rappahannock, 
Madison,  Greene,  Albemarle,  Louisa,  Orange,  Culpeper, 
and  Prince  William.  Fairfax  may  have  received  some  Ger- 
man immigrants  from  the  port  of  Alexandria,  where  small 
accessions  to  the  German  population  entered,  coming  di- 
rectly from  Germany.  The  counties  Madison  and  Fauquier 
had  been  settled  by  Germans  even  earlier  than  those  of 
the  Valley,  and  no  doubt  possessed  the  largest  German 
population  of  all  the  surrounding  counties.  One  of  the 
most  important  elements  of  the  population  in  Madison 
County  at  this  day  is  constituted  by  the  descendants  of 
the  original  colonists  around  Hebron  Church  from  Ger- 
manna.^  The  same  can  be  said  of  the  descendants  (fewer 
in  number)  of  the  other  group  of  Germanna  colonists  who 
settled  along  the  Licking  Run  in  Fauquier  County.^ 

Among  the  settlers  in  the  present  Culpeper  County  were 
the  Waggener  brothers,  five  in  number.  They  joined  Colo- 
nel Washington  against  Fort  Duquesne  in  1754,  and  were 
members  of  the  First  Virginia  Regiment  when  Braddock 
met  his  defeat,  Edward  Waggener  being  among  the  slain. 
Andrew  Waggener  was  commissioned  captain  and  placed 
in  command  of  Fort  Pleasant,  to  defend  the  frontier 
against  the  Indians.  He  then  settled  in  Berkeley  County, 
West  Virginia  (Bunker  Hill),  where  he  remained  until  the 
Revolution,  when  he  joined  the  army  at  once  and  served 

1  Cf.  pp.  178  ff.,  181-182,  and  204.  ^  Cf.  pp.  180-181,  and  204. 


THE   GERMANS  IN  VIRGINIA  201 

from  the  bescinninff  to  the  end  of  the  war.  In  Louisa 
County  Schuricht  found  a  number  of  German  names 
among  the  first  entries  in  the  land  registers,  such  as  Boe- 
siek,  Hesler,  Hehler,  Arndt,  Armistead  ( Armstaedt),  Flem- 
ming,  Kohler,  Brockman,  Buckner,  and  Spiller.  Into  Prince 
WilHam  County  a  number  of  Tunkers  migrated  from  the 
Valley,  there  selling  at  high  prices  and  buying  at  a  low 
figure  in  Prince  William,  then  "  improving  and  making 
former  waste  fields  to  blossom."  ^ 

The  statement  is  often  repeated  that  the  current  of 
immigration  from  the  mountains  met,  in  Midland  Virginia, 
another  coming  northward  from  the  Carolinas.  There 
seems  so  far  to  be  no  definite  verification  for  this  tradi- 
tion. Apparently  some  North  Carolina  Germans  settled 
on  the  southern  line  of  Virginia,  on  the  Dan  and  Roanoke 
rivers,  in  the  counties  of  Pittsylvania,  Halifax,  and  Meck- 
lenburg.^ The  Moravian  missionary,  Schnell,  met  the 
Swiss  settler,  ZoUikoffer,  on  the  Roanoke,  and  concerning 
the  same  region  we  find  a  statement  made,  "  there  gained 
considerable  wealth  in  a  short  time  a  few  Swiss  and  some 
Frenchmen  —  by  cultivating  hemp  and  flax."  ^  The  Hel- 
vetian Society  also  made  the  record  :  "  Many  French  re- 
formists, representative  people  from  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
(at  present  within  the  borders  of  Germany),  owned  large 
plantations  along  the  James  River,  particularly  above  the 
James  River  Falls  (Powhatan  and  Goochland  counties), 

1  Thomas  Whitehead,  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  in  Virginia,  Report 
of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  of  Virginia,  p.  142.  (Richmond,  Virginia, 
1888.)  The  Commissioner  encourages  others  to  do  the  same. 

'  Some  perhaps  also  settled  in  Wythe,  Pulaski,  Montgomery,  and  Craig 
counties,  i.  e.,  along  the  mountain  ranges.  Cf.  above,  pp.  196-198. 

3  Neu  gefundenes  Eden,  oder  ausfiihrlicher  Bericht  von  Siid  und  Nord 
Carolina,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  und  Virginia.  In  Truck  verfertigt  durch, 
Befelch  der  Helvetischen  Societaet,  1737.  Republished  in  Der  Westen,  Chi- 
cago, Illinois,  November  6,  1892,  to  January  29,  1893. 


202  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

who  had  left  France,  fugitive  on  account  of  their  religious 
faith." 

Scattered  German  settlers  appeared  in  a  great  many 
towns  of  Virginia  at  or  near  their  period  of  foundation. 
In  Richmond  it  seems  that  the  first  sale  of  land  by  Colonel 
Byrd  was  to  a  German  and  that  the  oldest  building  in  the 
city,  "  the  old  stone  house  on  Main  Street,"  still  standing,* 
was  built  by  a  German  about  1737.  The  lot  was  sold  by 
the  son  of  Colonel  Byrd  to  Samuel  Sherer,  who  after- 
wards deeded  it  to  Jacob  Ege,  the  property  remaining  in 
the  possession  of  this  German  family  until  a  few  years 
ago.  The  "  stone  house  "  is  the  oldest  building  in  Rich- 
mond, and  its  erection  probably  antedates  the  laying-out 
of  the  town.  There  were  a  number  of  German  names 
amons"  the  first  settlers  of  Petersburo-,  Norfolk,  and  Ports- 
mouth.  Smithfield,  in  the  county  Isle  of  Wight,  was 
founded  by  Germans  who  built  a  Lutheran  church  there 
in  1772.  It  is  claimed  that  the  first  owner  of  the  land 
upon  which  Lynchburg  (Campbell  County)  was  built  was 
a  German  Quaker,  who  sold  it  to  John  Lynch,  an  Irish- 
man, after  whom  the  city  received  its  name. 

Such  scattered  details  show  that  much  remains  to  be 
done  before  the  history  of  the  Germans  in  Virginia  can  be 
finally  written.  One  fact  is  very  clear,  viz.,  that  the  Ger- 
man settlements  were  far  more  numerous  toward  the  west 
or  higher  portions  of  Virginia  than  elsewhere.  The  desir- 
able German  immigrant,  a  farmer,  artisan,  or  day  laborer, 
was  repelled  by  the  presence  of  negroes  in  Tidewater 
Virginia,  and  would  not  work  by  their  side.  Neither 
his  worldly  estate  nor  his  natural  inclination  allowed 
the  German  to  be  idle.  He  did  not  therefore  fit  into  the 
society  of  Eastern  Virginia.  Where  the  German  settle- 

1  Schuricht  (1898),  vol.  i,  p.  80. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  203 

ments  were  numerous,  there  were  very  few  negroes,  a  fact 
that  remains  true  to  the  present  time/ 

There  remain  to  be  noticed  a  few  settlements  in  the 
extreme  west  of  the  colony  of  Virginia,  established  before 
the  Revolutionary  War,  at  the  very  outposts  of  civilization. 
They  were  located  within  the  present  borders  of  West 
Virginia,  within  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  Two  of  them 
were  situated  respectively  on  Patterson's  Creek  and  on 
the  South  Branch  of  the  Potomac,  the  third  settlement 
was  on  the  New  River,  which  with  the  Greenbrier  forms 
the  Great  Kanawha,  tributary  of  the  Ohio.  These  remote 
settlements  are  brought  nearer  to  us  by  the  diaries  of  the 
Moravian  missionaries  Schnell,  Gottschalk,  and  Spangen- 
berg  (deposited  in  the  Archives  of  the  Moravian  church 
at  Bethlehem).^  The  Moravian  missionaries  made  annual 
or  sometimes  semi-annual  trips  through  the  frontier  settle- 
ments, in  order  to  keep  the  spark  of  rehgious  life  from 
going  out  in  the  barren  outposts  of  civilization.  The 
earliest  trip  recorded  is  that  of  Schnell  in  1743.  The  com- 
mon route  taken  was  from  Bethlehem  by  way  of  Lebanon, 
Lancaster,  and  York  in  Pennsylvania,  to  Frederick  and 
Hagerstown  in  Maryland.  A  stop  was  made  with  old  Hager, 
who  would  probably  take  the  missionaries  for  safety  to 
Prathor  or  to  Cresap,  the  latter,  though  reputed  ferocious 
as  an  Indian,  being  gentle  to  the  envoys  of  the  "  Lamb." 
They  would  cross  the  North  Mountain,  the  last  and  high- 
est ridge  being  called  High  Germany ;  thence  they  pro- 

*  According  to  statistical  reports  in  1877,  the  negro  population  in  the 
Alleghany  district  amounted  to  nearly  seven  per  cent,  in  the  Valley  sixteen 
per  cent,  but  in  the  Piedmont  and  Coast  districts  from  forty-seven  to  fifty- 
one  per  cent  of  the  total  population.  Schuricht,  vol.  i,  p.  97. 

^  Translated  in  the  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  xi,  pp.  113  £f.,  370  ff.  ;  vol.  xii, 
pp.  55  ff.,  62  ff.,  etc.  All  of  the  missionaries  named  above  were  of  German 
or  Swiss  birth  (not  Moravian). 


204  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

ceecled  to  the  Potomac,  sometimes  stopping  at  the  Hot 
Springs  (now  Berkeley  Springs,  Morgan  County,  West 
Viro-inia),  and  sometimes  going  upward  by  the  Potomac 
toward  Cumberland,  Maryland,  and  then  proceeding  up 
Patterson's  Creek,  in  West  Virginia. 

Brother  Gottschalk  in  1748  names  as  the  German  sta- 
tions, where  there  was  an  open  door  for  the  Word  of  God, 
eleven  German  settlements  :  first,  Patterson's  Creek ;  sec- 
ond, the  South  Branch  of  the  Potomac ;  third,  Shenandoah ; 
fourth.  Cedar  Creek  (the  settlement  of  Joist  Hite) ;  fifth, 
Massanutten ;  sixth, the  Upper  Germans  (Madison  County) ; 
seventh,  the  Great  Fork  of  the  Rappahannock  (Germanna) ; 
eighth,  the  Little  Fork  of  the  Rappahannock  (a  branch  of 
the  Germantown  settlement) ;  ninth,  Germantown  (Lick- 
ing Run,  Fauquier  County) ;  tenth,  Newfound  River 
(Dunkards) ;  eleventh.  New  River.  If  the  whole  round 
were  made,  namely,  beginning  with  West  Virginia,  going 
south westwardly  through  the  mountains  to  the  New  River, 
and  thence  northeastwardly,  through  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley, back  through  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  the  whole 
distance  was  about  one  thousand  miles. 

Not  all  the  settlements  were  visited  on  every  tour.  The 
remote  New  River  settlement  was  sometimes  omitted,  and 
as  the  Reverend  Mr.  Klug  in  Madison  County  and  the 
Lutherans  at  Shenandoah  did  not  generally  lend  a  willing 
ear,  they  also  were  often  left  unvisited  by  the  missionaries. 
Opposition  to  the  Moravians  was  increased  by  the  pro- 
clamations of  Governor  Gooch  against  lay  preachers, 
aimed  primarily  at  the  Whitefieldians  and  Methodists, 
the  Episcopal  and  Lutheran  churches  uniting  against 
their  so-called  heresies.  The  purpose  of  the  missionaries, 
however,  was  never  to  separate  Christians  from  their  de- 
nominational affiliations :  they  preached  no  dogmas,  but 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  205 

desired  merely  to  impress  the  spirit  of  Christianity  in  its 
most  elemental  forms.  Everywhere  they  came  upon  people 
thirsting  for  an  uplifting  word  and  their  preaching  proved 
wonderfully  inspiring  because  so  simple,  unselfish  and 
pure. 

Patterson's  Creek  flows  into  the  North  Branch  of  the 
Potomac  about  twelve  miles  below  Cumberland,  Mary- 
land. On  both  sides  of  the  Creek,  Brother  Gottschalk 
tells  us,  in  1748,  there  lived  Germans  interspersed  with 
English,  for  a  distance  of  twenty  or  thirty  miles.  He 
says  there  is  in  this  district  not  only  an  opportunity  to 
preach  among  the  Germans,  but  the  English  seem  even 
more  eag-er  for  it  than  the  Germans.  Brother  Schnell 
put  down  in  his  diary  July,  1748:  "We  came  to  William 
Degart,  whom  I  asked,  whether  I  could  preach  in  his 
stable,  for  the  houses  are  all  very  small  and  poor.  He 
sent  out  messages  that  evening  to  announce  the  service." 
High  Germans,  English,  and  Low  Germans  assembled  for 
his  sermon. 

The  settlements  on  the  South  Branch  of  the  Potomac 
were  next  visited  by  the  missionaries.  The  description 
which  Gottschalk  gives,  holds  good  for  to-day.  "  It  is  a 
large  and  long  river  extending  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  and  rising  high  in  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  Most 
of  the  German  people  live  along  the  river,  but  also  many 
English  settlers,  because  it  is  an  extraordinarily  beautiful 
and  fertile  country.  This  river,  the  South  Branch,  has 
above  it  a  long  fork  called  the  South  Fork.  About  forty- 
five  miles  below  the  South  Fork,  the  country  becomes 
thickly  populated,  and  thus  it  continues  upwards  to  the 
upper  part  of  South  Fork."  Gottschalk  preached  along 
the  South  Branch  at  two  places,  below  at  the  house  of  an 
Englishman  named  Collins,  who  requested  more  sermons 


206  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

in  English.  Above,  at  the  South  Fork,  he  preached  in 
English  and  German  at  the  home  of  Matthias  Joachim. 
Schnell  and  Spangenberg  also  stopped  with  Joachim,  and 
Spangenberg  with  Urban  us  Kraemer  and  the  Dutchman 
Van  Meter  (from  Esopus,  New  York).  Gottschalk  in  1748 
was  influenced  to  stay  at  least  two  weeks.  "  In  all  Vir- 
ginia I  did  not  find  another  place  like  the  South  Branch 
where  I  felt  that  the  gospel  had  such  free  course  among 
the  people.  They  were  exceedingly  well  satisfied  with  my 
sermon.  They  liked  Brother  Schnell  very  much  "  (he  was 
there  the  year  before,  in  1747,  and  in  1749).  The  follow- 
ing is  a  typical  entry  in  the  diary  of  the  missionary  Schnell ; 
he  is  speaking  of  the  South  Branch :  — 

July  17th  (1747),  a  considerable  number  of  people  assembled 
towards  noon,  to  whom  I  preached  from  John  vii.  37,  "  If  any 
man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink."  After  the  sermon 
the  people  complained  about  their  poor  condition,  that  they  had 
no  minister,  while  in  Pennsylvania  there  were  so  many.  They 
asked  me  to  stay  with  them.  Then  they  brought  me  about  six 
children,  whom  I  should  baptize,  but  I  had  to  refuse.  [The 
Moravians  did  not  baptize  children.] 

July  20th.  At  noon  we  stopped  with  an  Englishman.  He  com- 
plained that  for  two  years  he  had  heard  no  sermon,  although  he 
had  been  compelled  every  year  to  pay  for  the  county  minister. 

July  21st.  Came  to  a  place  where  they  had  just  eaten  the  last 
bit  of  bread.  We  waited  for  a  woman  who  baked  some  for  us. 
[This  was  an  uncommon  experience  ,•  generally  there  was  no 
bread  to  be  had  on  the  frontier.] 

Brother  Joseph  (Bishop  Spangenberg's  name  among 
the  Brethren),  in  1748  continued  along  the  South  Branch 
almost  to  the  place  where  it  rises  and  where  the  last  settle- 
ments of  the  Germans  are  located,  i.  e.,  the  extreme  south- 
ern part  of  Pendleton  County,  West  Virginia,  near  the 


THE   GERMANS  IN  VIRGINIA  207 

northern  border  of  Highland  County,  Virginia.^  They 
lodged  with  a  German,  Christian  Evi,  and  there  Brother 
Joseph  preached  in  German,  also  in  English  because 
many  English  settlers  lived  there.  These  were  the  first 
sermons  which  "  a  mundo  condito  "  had  been  preached 
in  this  locality.  The  missionaries  (Spangenberg  was  ac- 
companied by  Mathew  Reutz)  lost  their  way,  but,  aided 
by  an  elk  trail,  they  got  out  of  the  mountains  at  the  settle- 
ment of  Adam  Rader  in  the  vicinity  of  Timberville,  Rock- 
ingham County,  Virginia. 

Brother  Schnell,  in  1749,  visited  the  New  River  settle- 
ment, accompanied  by  Brandmueller.  They  had  great 
difficulty  in  finding  it,  proceeding  from  the  source  of  the 
South  Fork  of  the  South  Branch  of  the  Potomac.  They 
were  on  the  very  outskirts  of  civilization,  in  dense  forests 
infested  by  wolves.  They  slept  on  bear  skins  in  settlers' 
huts,  received  plenty  of  bear  meat,  but  no  bread  and 
cheese.  The  ministers  entered  thepresent  Highland  County, 
Virginia,  followed  the  Cow  Pasture  River,  and  reached 
the  James,  through  which  they  swam.  They  arrived  at  the 
Irish  settlements  not  far  from  Fincastle,  —  in  the  words  of 
the  diary :  "  Then  we  came  to  a  house  where  we  had  to 
lie  on  bear  skins  around  the  fire  like  the  rest.  The  man- 
ner of  living  is  rather  poor  in  this  district.  The  clothes  of 
the  people  consist  of  deer  skins,  their  food  of  Johnny- 
cakes,  deer  and  bear  meat.  A  kind  of  white  people  are 
found  here,  who  live  like  savasres.  Hunting^  is  their  chief 
occupation."  ^  The  missionaries  found   no  bread  even  at 

^  In  the  neighborhood  was  Seybert's  Fort,  the  scene  of  an  Indian  massacre 
in  1758. 

2  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  xi,  p.  123.  Editor's  note:  Counties  of  Bath  and 
Alleghany,  Va.  "  The  settlers  were  on  the  last  outpost  of  civilization  with  the 
Indians  as  their  only  neighbors  on  the  west.  The  wolves  were  numerous,  a 
price  was  fixed  upon  their  heads  —  256  heads  were  presented  in  1751." 


208  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Justice  Robinson's,  who  owned  a  mill.  Thirty  miles  more 
the  missionaries  journeyed  onward  without  seeing  a  house 
until  coming  to  the  New  River.  There  they  found  a  num- 
ber of  Germans  settled  within  the  present  limits  of  Mont- 
gomery and  Augusta  counties.  The  missionaries  stayed 
at  the  house  of  Jacob  Hermann,  who  was  subsequently 
killed  by  the  Indians,  in  1756.* 

Brother  Schnell  continues  to  say  that  they  were  only 
a  few  miles  distant  from  the  Seventh  Day  Baptists,  who 
lived  at  that  time  on  the  New  River.  "  But  we  had  enough 
with  the  description  which  the  people  gave  of  them,"  mean- 
ing, no  doubt,  that  their  preaching  would  not  change 
them.  The  people  referred  to  were  a  part  of  the  Ephrata 
Community,  S.  and  I.  Eckerlin,  Alexander  Mack  and  others 
who  left  Ephrata  in  1745.  According  to  the  "  Ephrata 
Chronicle,"  they  "  fled  about  four  hundred  English  miles 
toward  the  setting  sun  —  to  the  New  River  (which  ran 
toward  the  Mississippi).  They  spent  their  time  amid  the 
dregs  of  human  society,  who  spent  their  time  hunting  wild 
beasts."  The  Moravian  diaries  prove  that  the  two  colonies 
on  the  New  River  were  distinct,  with  little  or  no  inter- 
course between  them.  The  Sabbatarian  settlement  was 
given  up  in  1750. 

One  of  the  bravest  deeds  in  the  history  of  the  American 
frontier  was  the  journey  made  by  Brother  Schnell,  lasting 
from  November  6,  1743,  to  April  10,  1744,  and  extend- 
ing from  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  through  Maryland, 
Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas  to  Georgia.  It  was  a  mission 
tour,  for  a  long  distance  marking  the  frontier  line  of  the 

1  Presumably  many  of  the  settlers  were  killed  by  the  Indians  in  1755-56, 
but  the  settlement  may  have  risen  again  after  the  blow,  as  in  most  other 
places.  Cf.  Waddell's  Annals  of  Augusta  County,  pp.  154-158  (1902).  The 
editor  of  the  Virginia  Magazine  surmises  that  these  German  colonists  on  the 
New  River  came  from  North  Carolina. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  VIRGINIA  209 

American  wilderness.  Leonhard  Selinell  was  accompanied 
by  Robert  Hussey  (born  in  Wiltshire,  England),  a  teacher 
of  the  Moravian  school  in  Oley,  Pennsylvania.  They  trav- 
eled on  foot,  except  when  occasionally  a  kind-hearted 
pioneer  would  lend  them  a  horse  to  convey  them  to  the 
next  settler,  and  they  went  unarmed,  except  for  the  In- 
dian hatchet  that  they  used  to  cut  a  path  through  the 
dense  brushwood.  They  took  the  regular  road  from  Beth- 
lehem to  Maryland,  there  stopping  at  the  Monocacy  set- 
tlements with  Abraham  Mueller,  among  plain  people,  and 
"felt  very  happy  among  them."  The  stalwart  Schuell 
carried  his  companion  over  the  Monocacy,  the  latter  being 
very  tired,  for  they  had  already  walked  forty  miles.  Per- 
haps the  West  Virginia  settlements  did  not  yet  exist,^ 
for  the  missionaries  went  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
stopping  with  Joist  Hite  on  the  Opequon,  where  they  dis- 
closed their  purpose  of  going  overland  to  Georgia.  Joist 
Hite  told  them  of  a  route  through  the  Irish  settlements, 
in  the  present  Augusta  and  Rockbridge  counties,  but  the 
missionaries  did  not  wish  to  take  that  course.  The  Ger- 
man Catholic  Schmidt  directed  them  on  another  way,  and 
as  a  result  they  left  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  going  to 
Germantown,  next  to  the  German  settlements  of  Madison 
County,  and  then  directly  southward  almost  in  a  straight 
line,  taking  the  sun  as  a  guide,  through  Louisa,  Gooch- 
land, Powhatan,  Amelia,  and  Brunswick  counties,  to  the 
Roanoke  River  near  where  it  intersects  the  state  bound- 
ary. There  they  met  Zollikoffer,  the  Swiss  settler.  Thence 
they  went  southeastwardly,  crossing  the  Tar  River,  the 
Neuse,  and  entering  Craven  County,  North  Carolina. 
Striking  the  offshoots  of  the  New  Bern  settlement,  they 

1  This  was  in  1743.    By  1747-48  the  settlements  were   numerous  and 
prosperous,  as  described  above. 


210  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

were  feasted  by  Abraham  Bossert.  They  heard  many  re- 
ports about  new  Swiss  arrivals,  and  Germans  were  strewn 
all  along  their  path.  They  made  their  way  to  Wilmington, 
North  Carolina  (called  Williamstown),  arriving  December 
17,  and  finding  snow  and  ice.  They  crossed  Cape  Fear 
River,  paying  fifteen  shillings  for  the  passage  (one  shil- 
ling sixpence,  sterling),  which  they  could  well  afford, 
having  been  supplied  with  funds  from  the  German  settlers 
just  visited.  Then  they  passed  over  to  South  Carolina, 
December  20,  and  journeyed  along  the  ocean  over  the 
sand  of  the  beach  at  low  tide.  They  had  to  hurry  from 
station  to  station  before  the  tide  should  return,  otherwise 
their  lives  would  be  in  danger.  They  made  Winyal  Bay 
on  December  22,  were  taken  across  the  Santee  River, 
and  on  Christmas  Day  arrived  at  Charleston.  Hearing  that 
there  were  not  many  Germans  in  the  city,  they  hurried 
on  to  Purysburg,  and  remained  with  Brother  Beck  at 
White  Bluff,  where  the  Germans  lived  on  about  forty 
plantations.  Schnell  preached  and  worked,  though  several 
had  threatened  to  stone  him  if  he  did.  Subsequently  he 
visited  Savannah  and  Ebenezer  in  Georgia,  and  on  Feb- 
ruary 15,  boarded  a  sloop  for  New  York,  arriving  in 
Bethlehem  April  10,  1774.  The  deeds  of  the  Moravian 
missionaries  have  never  been  heralded  as  great  achieve- 
ments in  American  history,  but  in  justice  to  them  it  must 
be  admitted  that  in  their  exhibition  of  courage,  endurance, 
and  humanity  they  rank  higher  than  many  of  the  great 
feats  of  war. 

The  Germans  in  Virginia  during  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury carried  onward  the  work  which  the  Pennsylvania 
Germans  had  been  noted  for.  As  agriculturists  their 
main  achievement  was  to  make  the  Valley  of  Virginia 
and  the  adjacent  lands  to  the  east,  at  the  base  of  the 


THE   GERMANS   IN   VIRGINIA  211 

mountains,  the  richest  farming  country  in  the  state.  They 
had  settled  on  the  western  frontier,  and  were  ready  to 
take  part,  in  the  front  rank,  in  the  permanent  settlement 
of  Kentucky  and  the  Southwest. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    GERMANS   IN    NORTH   AND    SOUTH    CAROLINA    DURING 
THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY 

First  settlement  at  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  in  1710  —  Indian  war  — 
Germans  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina  —  Purysburg,  South  Carolina, 
1732  —  Settlements  in  the  Orangeburg  and  Lexington  Districts  (Saxe- 
Gotha),  South  Carolina,  1735  —  The  Giessendanners  —  Zauberbiihler  — 
Counties  of  South  Carolina  with  early  German  settlers  —  The  fifteen 
churches  of  South  Carolina  —  German  settlers  from  Pennsylvania  in  the 
interior  of  North  Carolina,  1750  —  The  Reverend  A.  Nussmaun  —  Mora- 
vian settlements  in  the  "Wachovia"  tract,  North  Carolina,  1753  — 
Bethabara,  Bethany,  Salem. 

The  first  German  settlements*  in  the  Carolinas  were 
naturally  along  the  seacoast.  North  Carolina  received  its 
first  quota  of  German  settlers  from  the  mass  of  Palatines 
/  who  arrived  in  England  in  1710.  Christoph  Graffenried 
(also  known  as  Baron  Christopher  de  Graffenried)  of  Bern, 
Switzerland,  arrived  in  London  with  some  Swiss  emigrants 

*  Much  of  the  early  history  of  the  Germans  in  the  Carolinas  is  still  obscure, 
as  in  the  case  of  Virginia,  and  undoubtedly  a  great  deal  is  lost  forever.  The 
best  available  sources  are  Bernheim  and  Urlsperger.  Bernheim's  History  of 
the  German  Settlements  and  the  Lutheran  Church  in  North  and  South  Carolina 
(Philadelphia,  1872),  gives  a  fairly  complete  account  of  the  Germans  in  both 
North  and  South  Carolina,  based  on  facts  gathered  from  the  archives  of  the 
Lutheran  churches,  the  church  record  books  kept  by  Giessendanner,  and  other 
founders  of  congregations,  and  from  Journals  of  the  Council  of  the  Province 
of  South  Carolina  (in  manuscript  form  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State). 
The  voluminous  work  edited  by  Urlsperger  is  described  in  its  title  : 
Samuel  Urlsperger  :  Amerikanisches  Ackerwerk  Gottes;  oder  Zuverldssige 
Nachrichten,  den  Zustand  der  Amerikanisch-englischen  und  von  Salzburgischen 
Emigranten  erbauten  Pflanzstadt,  Ebenezer  in  Georgien  betreffend,  aus  dorther 
eingeschickten  glaubioilrdigen  Diarien  genommen,  und  mit  Brie/en  der  dasigen 
Herren  Prediger  noch  weiter  bestdttigt.  (Augsburg,  1754-57,  5  vols.)  Both 
of  these  works  are  reliable  as  sources  of  information. 


THE   GERMANS   IN   THE   CAEOLINAS       213 

just  at  the  time  when  London  was  so  much  concerned 
about  the  disposal  of  the  thirteen  thousand  Palatines.  In 
London  Graffenried  met  Louis  Michel  (frequently  spelt 
Mitchell),  also  a  Swiss,  who  had  spent  several  years  in 
America  to  examine  the  conditions  of  American  colonists/ 
Graffenried  and  Michel  thought  the  time  opportune  for 
planting  a  colony  in  the  Carolinas.  They  accepted  the 
liberal  terms  of  the  proprietors,  paying  twenty  shillings 
sterlino^  for  each  one  hundred  acres  of  land  and  bindingf 
themselves  to  a  quitrent  of  sixpence  yearly  for  every  hun- 
dred acres.  An  additional  one  hundred  thousand  acres 
were  to  be  laid  off  and  reserved  for  twelve  years.  They 
induced  about  six  hundred  and  fifty  Palatines  to  go  with 
them,  filling  two  vessels.  They  received  permission  to  lo- 
cate in  one  body,  on  or  between  the  Neuse  and  Cape  Fear 
rivers  or  their  tributaries,  and  arrived  in  December,  1710, 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Neuse  and  Trent,  North  Carolina, 
where  they  founded  New  Bern  (Newbern),  named  after 
the  capital  of  Switzerland. 

Their  first  year  was  calamitous,  for  in  1711,  not  many 
months  after  their  arrival,  an  Indian  war  broke  out.  The 
white  settlers  had  lived  on  friendly  terms  with  the  Indians, 
admitting  them  into  their  houses  as  friends,  frequently 
as  domestics,  and  all  threatening  troubles  had  been 
adjusted  amicably.  As  usual  the  premeditated  Indian 
massacre  was  concealed  beneath  a  stratagem.  At  the  ap- 
pointed time  many  hundred  Tuscaroras  appeared,  some 
in  small  divisions  enterinsr  the  houses  of  the  colonists  as 
often  before,  and  others  as  night  approached  coming  in 
larger  numbers  to  the  villages  as  if  to  gather  provisions, 
— not  numerous  enough,  however,  to  occasion  alarm.  They 
awaited  the  sunrise  as  a  signal  for  attack.  Then  the  In- 

'  He  was  an  explorer.  Cf.  Chapter  i,  pp.  28-29. 


214  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

(lians,  in  the  houses,  and  without,  gave  the  war-whoop, 
awakening  the  response  of  the  Indians  lying  out  in  the 
woods.  The  settlers  were  completely  taken  by  surprise; 
an  indiscriminate  slaughter  of  men,  women,  and  children 
followed.  One  hundred  and  thirty  whites  were  butchered 
in  the  settlements  of  North  Carolina;  sixty  or  more  Swiss 
and  Palatines  around  Newbern  were  amono;  the  victims. 
The  torch  was  applied  to  dwellings  in  which  colonists  had 
concealed  themselves,  and  they  were  forced  from  their 
hiding-places  to  meet  death  or  torture. 

Graff enried,  with  no  suspicion  of  coming  hostilities,  was 
absent  on  an  exploring  tour  with  the  surveyor-general, 
Lawson.  Expecting  to  spend  their  first  night  in  an  Indian 
village,  they  were  taken  captive  instead  of  being  hospit- 
ably received.  Graffenried  escaped  by  declaring  he  was  a 
king  of  the  German  Palatines,  demanding  by  what  au- 
thority they  could  put  a  king  to  death,  who  had  committed 
no  offense  against  them.  He  was  kept  in  custody,  but 
spared,  on  the  promise  that  the  Palatines  should  be  kept 
from  waging  war  against  the  Indians.  The  promise  was 
kept,  in  the  subsequent  war  of  revenge  by  the  whites, 
much  to  the  latter's  displeasure.  The  Palatines,  however, 
were  of  assistance  in  acquainting  the  whites  as  to  the 
plans  and  movements  of  the  Indians.* 

As  a  result  of  the  war  of  revenge,  the  Indians  were 
reduced  in  numbers  and  removed  to  more  remote  parts, 
the  Palatines  being  on  the  whole  benefited  by  the  war. 
Graffenried  left  the  colonists,^  serving  them  an  ill  turn  by 

■^  Lawson  was  tortured  to  death  in  the  most  savage  manner,  sharp  splinters 
of  pine  being  put  into  his  flesh  and  set  on  fire.  A  land  surveyor  never  received 
quarter  on  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Indians,  who  always  considered  him 
the  cause  of  the  land  robberies. 

'  Whether  Graffenried  returned  to  America  is  not  known  ;  descendants  of 
his  name  still  reside  in  various  parts  of  the  Carolinas. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  THE   CAROLINAS       215 

withholding  from  them  the  titles  of  their  lands,  which  the 
two  Swiss  leaders  had  sold  to  their  own  creditors.  The 
victims  of  the  speculation  sent  a  petition  to  the  Carolina 
Council,  November  6,  1714,  asking  for  a  grant  of  four 
hundred  acres  for  each  family  and  two  years'  time  to  pay 
for  it.  The  petition  was  granted,  and  the  colonists  un- 
doubtedly spread  over  what  is  now  Craven  County,  where 
they  were  found  extending  over  a  wide  area  by  the  mis- 
sionary Schnell  in  1743.* 

In  South  Carolina  the  first  German  settlers  are  found  in 
the  city  of  Charleston,  the  immigrant  port  of  the  South. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  there  were  some  Germans  among 
the  Dutch  Lutherans  that  settled  on  James  Island,  south- 
west of  the  Ashley  River  and  opposite  Charleston,  in  1674. 
They  had  fled  from  the  intolerance  of  their  own  country- 
men of  the  Protestant  Reformed  Church,  at  New  Amster- 
dam. Certain  it  is  that  there  were  some  Germans  at 
Charleston  when  Bolzius  landed  with  his  Salzburgers  in 
1734.  They  had  settled  at  Charleston  at  a  time  when  the 
lands  inland,  on  the  Congaree  River,  were  not  yet  occupied, 
beino;  too  far  west.  When  Miihlenbero;  visited  Charleston 
in  1742  on  his  way  to  Ebenezer,  and  was  detained  wait- 
ing for  a  vessel,  he  labored  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
the  Germans  at  Charleston  from  October  20  to  November 
12,  1742.  He  lived  with  the  family  of  a  painter  named 
Theus,  the  brother  of  the  German  Reformed  minister  in 
Saxe-Gotha,  South  Carolina,  along  the  Congaree  River. 
Charleston,  however,  was  not  at  first  favored  as  a  place  of 
settlement,  serving  more  as  a  distributing  centre  for  the 
inland  counties,  Saxe-Gotha  and  Orangeburg,  a  verifica- 
tion of  which  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  inland  rural 
districts  had  a  regular  German  pastor  as  early  as  1737, 

'  See  Chapter  vii,  pp.  209-210. 


216  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

while  Charleston  did  not  until  1755.  The  Reverend  Mr. 
Friedrichs  built  the  first  Lutheran  church  in  Charleston 
in  1759. 

Next  in  chronological  order  among  the  settlements  in  the 
Carolinas  is  Purysburg,  1732,  in  Beaufort  County,  South 
Carolina,  some  thirty  miles  inland  from  the  seacoast,  on 
the  east  bank  of  the  Savannah  River.  The  settlement  was 
due  largely  to  the  enterprise  of  John  Peter  Pury  (Purry) 
of  Neufchatel,  who  received  liberal  inducements  from  the 
Carolina  proprietors.  In  1731  he  closed  a  contract  with  the 
English  government  by  which  he  received  four  hundred 
pounds  sterling  for  every  hundred  able-bodied  men  that 
he  might  bring  from  Switzerland.^  To  make  his  harvest 
good,  Pury  advertised  extensively  in  Switzerland,  accord- 
ing to  the  methods  employed  for  luring  immigrants.^  One 
hundred  and  seventy  Switzers  composed  the  first  expedition, 
and  forty  thousand  acres  were  assigned  to  them.^  Not  long 
afterwards  two  hundred  more  settlers  arrived.  They  were 
described  as  "  zealous  workers,  whose  intention  it  was,  be- 
sides the  necessary  husbandry,  to  plant  the  vine  and  rear 
and  manufacture  silk."  The  soil  was  considered  good  for 
the  grape-vine  and  the  white  mulberry  tree,  on  which  the 
silkworm  feeds.  The  manufacture  of  silk  at  Purysburg 
represents  another  industry  which  Germans  inaugurated  in 
America.  Of  their  other  activities  we  learn  something  from 
the  journal  of  Bolzius,  who  says  (May,  1734) :  "This  town 
is  built  on  the  more  elevated  banks  of  the  river,  and  has 

^  South  Carolina  Resources  and  Population,  Institutions  and  Industries,  p.  383. 
(Published  by  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  of  South  Carolina,  CharlestoD, 
South  Carolina,  1883.)  Three  hundred  and  seventy  men  came  out  of  Switz- 
erland to  Purysburg  in  the  first  year. 

2  Cf.  Chapter  iii,  pp.  63  ff. 

3  The  other  leaders  besides  Pury  were:  James  Richard,  of  Geneva,  Abra- 
ham Meuron  and  Henry  Raymond,  both  of  St.  Sulpy. 


THE   GERMANS  IN  THE  CAROLINAS       21T 

many  wealthy  people  residing  here ;  it  is  hoped  that  in  a 
short  time  it  will  become  a  considerable  town.  The  inhab- 
itants labor  industriously  in  their  gardens  and  fields,  and 
persons  can  already  procure  here  fresh  meats,  eggs,  garden 
vegetables,  even  more  than  in  Savannah.  We  were  shown 
all  kindness,  and  several  of  the  inhabitants  besought  us  to 
return  soon  again,  and  administer  the  communion."  They 
brought  their  own  pastor  with  them,  the  Reverend  Joseph 
Biignion,  a  German  Reformed  minister,  who  later  was 
induced  to  receive  the  Episcopal  ordination.  Purysburg 
played  some  part  in  the  Savannah  campaign  in  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  and  was  taken  by  the  British  under  Pre- 
vost.  A  large  number  of  Swiss  settlers  of  Purysburg 
sought  homes  in  other  parts  of  Carolina,  both  before  and 
after  the  Revolution,  leaving  to  Purysburg  very  little  more 
than  a  name  in  history.  The  westward  movement  in  South 
Carolina  seems  to  have  begun  earlier  than  in  most  other 
colonies,  the  attractions  of  a  higher  country,  a  healthier 
climate,  and  abundant  land  proving  irresistible. 

As  in  other  colonies,  the  Germans  of  South  Carolina 
were  defenders  of  the  frontier.  Their  settlements  began  in 
the  present  Orangeburg  and  Lexington  counties,  extend- 
ing along  both  sides  of  the  Edisto  and  Congaree  rivers, 
and  spreading  into  neighboring  counties  to  the  west- 
ward, viz.,  Barnwell,  Newberry,  Abbeville,  etc.  The  Ger- 
mans were  practically  the  first  settlers  in  the  Orangeburg 
district.^  They  did  not  all  arrive  at  the  same  time.  The 

'  The  first  white  inhabitant  was  Henry  Stirling,  presumably  a  trader  lo- 
cated at  Lyon's  Creek,  where  he  received  a  grant  of  land  in  1704.  The  next 
were  three  or  four  individuals  who  settled  at  the  Cowpens,  northwest  of 
the  white  settlements  in  the  Low  Country.  These  and  the  Cherokee  and 
Catawba  Indians  were  all  the  inhabitants  who  had  preceded  the  Germans. 
Cf.  Bernheim,  pp.  99-100.  (Bernheim  quotes  Mills's  Statistics  of  South  Caro- 
lina, pp.  656-657.) 


218  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

first  colony  came  in  1735,  anotiier  in  1736,  and  tlieir  first 
pastor,  the  Reverend  John  Ulrich  Giessendanner,  Senior, 
arrived  with  a  third  group  of  colonists  in  1737.^  They 
were  tillers  of  the  soil,  and  soon  were  blessed  with  the 
fruits  of  their  labors  in  the  fertile  districts  of  South  Caro- 
lina. A  considerable  number  of  mechanics  were  among 
them,  a  circumstance  favoring  the  independence  of  their 
settlement.  In  comparison  with  these  permanent  colonists, 
Purysburg  was  merely  a  station,  the  residents  of  which 
soon  removed  to  a  more  favorable  location. 

The  Giessendanners,  of  Swiss  nativity,^  kept  a  church 
record  ^  which  is  very  valuable  historically  and  genealog- 
ically. A  neighboring  German  Lutheran  settlement  in 
Amelia  Township,  along  Fourhole  Swamp  and  Creek,  was 
also  served  by  Giessendanner.  On  the  death  of  the  elder 
Giessendanner  in  1738,  his  nephew,  John  Giessendanner, 
succeeded  him.  The  Journals  of  Council  of  the  Province 
of  South  Carolina  ^  give  an  interesting  account  of  a  church 
difficulty,  in  which  an  adroit  young  man  by  the  name  of 
Zauberbiihler  (Zuberbiihler)  ^  attempted  to  displace  John 
Giessendanner.  The  latter  was  not  a  member  of  the 
established  church  in  the  province,  and  Zauberbiihler 
hoped,  by  becoming  an  ordained  minister  of  the  Episco- 

'  Mills,  in  Statistics  of  South  Carolina,  tells  us  that  immigrants  arrived  in 
Orangeburg  district  as  late  as  1769,  only  a  few  years  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. 

^  Bernheim  argues  that  the  Giessendanners  were  Lutherans,  until  they 
joined  the  Episcopal  Church. 

^  This  church  record  has  been  published  in  The  History  of  Orangeburg 
County,  South  Carolina,  chap,  ii,  pp.  91-216.  By  A.  S.  Salley,  Jr.  (Orange- 
burg, 1898.) 

*  Vol.  X,  pp.  395  S.  ;  xi,  pp.  74-76,  139-143,  152.  Quoted  by  Bernheim, 
pp.  110-119. 

^  The  Reverend  Bartholomew  Zauberbiihler  should  not  be  confused  with 
.Sebastian  Zouberbiihler  (Zauberbiihler)  who  was  prominent  in  connection  with 
the  German  colonies  of  Waldoboro  (Maine)  and  Lunenburg  (Nova  Scotia). 


THE  GERMANS   IN  THE   CAROLINAS       219 

pal  Church,  to  gain  an  advantage  over  the  Lutheran  pas- 
tor. Accordingly,  he  addressed  a  petition  to  the  Council 
of  South  Carolina,  stating  that  many  people  at  Orange- 
burg, feeling  the  need  of  instruction  in  the  true  religion, 
desired  that  he  be  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  London ; 
wherefore  he  jDrayed  for  support  and  payment  of  the  ex- 
penses of  the  voyage,  in  consideration  of  which  he  would 
bring  back  a  large  number  of  German  settlers.  He  was 
asked  to  produce  documents,  showing  that  he  was  quali- 
fied to  receive  orders,  and  that  the  people  of  Orangeburg 
desired  a  preacher.  He  obtained  a  number  of  signatures, 
and  the  council  was  ready  to  grant  the  petition,  voting 
five  hundred  pounds.^ 

A  counter-petition  was  prepared  (March  6,  1743)  by 
the  friends  of  John  Giessendanner  in  the  Orangeburg 
district.  This  testified  that  Giessendanner  had  visited 
Charleston  to  get  orders,  and  had  received  advice  to  go 
to  an  Assembly  of  the  Presbytery,  who,  after  some  time, 
presented  him  with  orders  to  preach,  — 

which  he  has  since  done  in  German  constantly  for  the  space 
of  five  years,  to  the  inexpressible  satisfaction  of  the  congregation 
at  Orangebui'g ;  and  about  two  years  ago  your  said  English  pe- 
titioners being  fully  sixty  miles  from  any  other  place  of  divine 
worship,  some  of  whom  had  not  been  favored  with  the  oppor- 
tunity of  hearing  a  sermon  in  the  space  of  seven  years,  observ- 
ing the  said  Mr.  John  Giessendanner  to  be  a  man  of  learning, 
piety,  and  knowledge  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  prevailed  with  him 
to  officiate  in  preaching  once  every  fortnight  in  English,  which 
he  hath  since  performed  very  articulate  and  intelligible,  to  the 
entire  satisfaction  of  the  said  English  petitioners,  and  always 
behaves  himself  with  sobriety,  honesty  and  justice,  encouraging 

'  Colonists  sometimes  left  for  other  provinces,  where  they  could  get  the 
services  of  a  preacher.  This  fact  undoubtedly  weighed  heavily  with  the 
council.  Cf.  Bernheim,  p.  193. 


220  THE   GEKMAN  ELEMENT 

virtue  and  reproving  vice.  And  the  said  Mr.  Jolin  Giessendan- 
ner,  lately  observing  great  irregularities  and  disorders  being 
committed  almost  every  Sabbath  Day  by  some  wicked  persons 
in  one  part  of  the  township,  publicly  reprimanded  them  for  the 
same,  which  reproof  so  exasperated  them,  that  they  threatened 
to  kick  the  said  John  Giessendanner  out  of  the  church  if  he 
offered  to  preach  there  any  more  and  have  lately  sent  for  one 
Bartholomew  Zauberbiihler,  a  man  who  not  long  ago  pretended 
to  preach  at  Savannah  town ;  but,  as  your  said  petitioners  are  in- 
formed was  soon  obliged  to  leave  that  place  and  a  very  indecent 
character  behind  him,  etc.,  etc. 

This  was  addressed  to  the  governor,  who  was  asked  to 
interpose  with  authority,  and  signed  by  John  Harn  and 
above  fourscore  more  subscribers,  i.  e.,  in  all  ninety 
names,  some  few  being  English  names. 

Certificates  of  good  character  for  Zauberbiihler  were 
obtained  from  various  places,  among  them  from  the 
Ebenezer  pastors,  whose  judgment,  beyond  question,  was 
fair  in  the  matter.  The  bitterness  of  the  quarrel  had  no 
doubt  caused  mutual  criminations.  The  governor  settled 
the  trouble  in  a  judicial  manner,  retaining  Giessendanner 
at  Orangeburg  absolutely,  and  in  an  interview  with  Zau- 
berbiihler threatening  to  cut  him  down  to  one-half  the  five 
hundred  pounds  voted  for  his  trip  abroad,  unless  he  would 
brinof  the  foreisfn  Protestants  over  with  him.  It  seems 
Zauberbiihler  returned  to  Carolina  after  bis  trip  to  Lon- 
don, bringing  colonists  with  him,  but  little  is  known 
definitely  concerning  him.^ 

Reverend  J.  G.  Friedrichs,  who  was  the  first  preacher 
of  the  Lutheran  church  in  Charleston,  subsequently  be- 
came the  pastor  in  the  Orangeburg  district.  During  his 
ministry  there  settled  in  Orangeburg  a  colony  of  Germans 
from  Maine,  accompanied  by  their  pastor,  the  Reverend  Mr. 

^  See  ante,  p.  218,  note  5  ;  also  p.  225. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  THE  CAROLINAS       221 

Silly.  According  to  one  account  sixty-three  families  were 
there  in  1763,  but  according  to  another  most  of  these 
colonists  returned  to  Maine/ 

Giessendanner's  congregation  must  have  been  large, 
since  the  petition  written  in  his  behalf  was  signed  by 
ninety  persons,  heads  of  families.  Their  church  was  built 
in  1743,  only  a  few  years  after  the  settlement  began. 
Giessendanner  ^  labored  there  for  ten  years,  after  which 
he  went  to  London,  in  1749,  to  receive  Episcopal  ordin- 
ation, his  church  becoming  Episcopalian  in  the  same  year 
(with  one  hundred  and  seven  communicants  ordinarily  and 
on  Whitsunday,  twenty-one  more). 

The  next  German  settlement  in  South  Carolina  began 
very  soon  after  the  founding  of  the  Orangeburg  colony,  in 
the  so-called  Saxe-Gotha  district,  a  name  that  originated  in 
Queen  Anne's  time  (before  1714).  The  benevolent  queen 
had  probably  intended  the  Saxe-Gotha  district  as  a  place 
of  refuofe  for  German  and  other  Protestant  exiles  in  the 
South,  as  Schoharie  had  been  in  the  North,  but  no  colony 
was  established  there  in  her  time,  Saxe-Gotha  being  then 
still  too  far  west  for  settlement. 

The  Journals  of  Council  ^  of  South  Carolina  fixed  the 

1  See  Chapter  ix,  p.  260. 

2  Giessendanner  died  in  1761  and  was  probably  buried  iu  the  "Old  Grave- 
yard "  near  the  Edisto  River. 

3  Vol.  viii,  p.  69,  May  26,  1742.  A  petition  of  J.  J.  Gallier  and  family, 
J.  C.  Gieger  (Geiger)  and  family,  J.  Shalling  and  family,  Abram  Gieger  and 
family,  J.  Liver  and  family,  J.  Gredig  and  family,  Caspar  Fry  and  family, 
Conrad  and  Caspar  KUntzler  (Kinsler),  J.  J.  Bieman  and  family,  H.  Gieger 
and  family,  Elizabeth  Shalling  and  family,  shows  that  they  had  settled  since 
1737  in  Saxe-Gotha  township.  Again  under  date  of  1744,  J.  J.  Gieger,  ar- 
rived seven  years  ago,  prays  for  one  hundred  acres  of  land  over  against  the 
Santee  River,  opposite  Saxe-Gotha,  where  he  has  already  begun  to  clear 
ground  and  almost  finished  a  house.  The  petition  was  granted.  Cf.  Bern- 
heim,pp.  126-127;  cf.  also  :  A.  S.  Salley,  The  History  of  Orangeburg  County, 
South  Carolina  (1898),  pp.  70-71. 


222  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

date  of  settlement  of  Saxe-Gotha  by  the  Germans  as  1737. 
This  district  was  located  farther  west,  and  therefore  colo- 
nized some  time  later  than  Orangeburg.  It  embraced  the 
whole  of  the  present  Lexington  County,  a  name  which  it 
received  in  1872.  It  was  one  hundred  English  miles  dis- 
tant from  Charleston,  on  the  road  which  passed  through 
Orangeburg,  and  was  "settled  by  German  people."  ^  They 
were  not  from  Saxe-Gotha  but  from  the  Rhine  country, 
Baden,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Switzerland.  Their  first  minister 
was  the  Reverend  Christian  Theus,  of  the  German  Re- 
formed Church.  Interesting  is  the  frank  statement  he 
made  to  the  government  of  South  Carolina,  that  if  the 
latter  desired  to  keep  the  colonists,  they  must  be  provided 
with  churches  and  schools;  otherwise  the  colonists  would 
do  what  many  had  done  before,  migrate  to  Pennsylvania, 
where  all  those  advantages  existed.^  The  government  gave 
five  hundred  pounds  to  assist  in  the  erection  of  a  church, 
which  was  built  under  the  ministry  of  Theus,  at  a  location 
a  short  distance  below  the  confluence  of  the  Saluda  and 
Broad  rivers  (forming  the  Congaree  River).  It  was  St. 
John's  Church,^  a  few  miles  from  the  present  capital, 
Columbia,  of  the  state  of  South  Carolina.  The  church 
was  probably  destroyed  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 
since  it  was  not  mentioned  in  the  incorporation  act  of  the 
united  German  churches,  passed  by  the  legislature  of 
South  Carolina  in  1788.  About  eight  miles  from  Colum- 
bia, near  Sandy  Run,  there  is  a  tombstone  bearing  the  in- 
scription :  "  This  stone  points  out  where  the  remains  of  the 
Reverend  Christian  Theus  lie.  This  faithful  divine  labored 
through  a  long  life  as  a  faithful  servant  in  his  Master's 

*   Urlsperger  Nachrichten,  vol.  iii,  p.  1791. 

2  This  seems  to  support  the  tradition  existing  in  Virginia,  that  there  was 
an  emigration  northward  from  the  Carolinas. 

2  Found  on  the  map,  CarrolVs  Collections^  1771-75. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  THE  CAROLINAS       223 

vineyard  and  the  reward  which  he  received  from  many  for 
his  labor  was  ingratitude."  The  stone  was  erected  by 
Abraham  Geiger  (Gieger),  parishioner,  at  his  own  ex- 
pense. We  probably  ought  not  to  take  the  inscription  too 
seriously,  except  for  the  statement  regarding  his  long  life 
and  excellent  service.  Theus  never  labored  for  rewards. 
As  an  octogenarian  he  probably  had  to  endure  the  con- 
sequences of  old  age,  indifference  and  neglect,  and  the 
frequent  separation  of  union  congregations^  into  Lutheran 
and  Reformed  probably  disturbed  him  greatly. 

During  the  years  1744-50  Saxe-Gotha  received  a  large 
influx  of  German  settlers.  The  St.  Andrew,  Captain  Brown, 
commander,  was  a  good  ship,  on  board  of  which  passen- 
gers for  the  Carolinas  were  treated  well, —  when  they  paid 
their  passage.  Captain  Ham  was  another  of  the  sea-captains 
who  brought  over  many  new  recruits  for  Orangeburg,  some 
also  for  Saxe-Gotha. 

From  1759-60  the  people  of  Saxe-Gotha  suffered  greatly 
from  the  Cherokee  War,  instigated  by  the  French.  The 
German  settlements  were  as  far  out  as  any.  The  Congaree 
and  Fork  settlements  were  greatly  exposed  to  attacks,  and, 
we  are  told  by  Bolzius,  many  settlers  took  refuge  at  Eben- 
ezer.  Savannah,  Charleston,  and  Purysburg,  until  the  In- 
dian hostilities  were  over.  The  damage  done,  however, 
was  merely  temporary. 

*  The  Urlsperger  Reports,  vol.  iv,  p.  672  (1750)  :  "  The  Reformed  church 
(a  congregation  of  about  two  hundred  and  eighty  souls)  have  received  five 
hundred  pounds,  Carolina  currency,  from  the  government  for  this  church, 
but  no  one  is  interested  in  the  Lutheran,  unless  I  would  do  something  in  their 
behalf.  They  live  with  the  Reformed  in  great  disunion,  at  which  I  showed 
my  displeasure  in  my  former  letter.  Several  people  have  left  us  for  other 
settlements,  who  might  have  obtained  land  here.  They  even  built  both  a 
saw-mill  and  a  grist-mill,  and  expected  to  build  more  of  the  kind.  Here  then 
should  they  be  enabled  to  erect  a  house  of  worship  if  they  were  sincerely  in 
earnest." 


224  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

A  number  of  other  German  settlements  in  South  Caro- 
lina, mostly  later  than  Orangeburg  and  Saxe-Gotha,  were 
the  following  :  First,  the  German  Lutheran  colony  at  Hard 
Labor  Creek,  1763-64,  in  the  present  county  of  Abbeville, 
quite  a  little  to  the  westward,  bordering  on  Georgia.  This 
colony  had  its  own  peculiar  history.  A  German  officer, 
named  Stiimpel,  having  applied  to  the  British  ministry  for 
a  tract  of  land  in  America,  and  having  received  some  en- 
couragement, returned  to  Germany  and  brought  between 
five  and  six  hundred  people  over  to  England.  When  they 
were  there,  Stiimpel  was  unable  to  fulfill  his  promises.  A 
German  clergyman  published  the  facts  in  a  newspaper, 
and  a  bounty  of  three  hundred  pounds  was  given  by  the 
government.  Tents  were  ordered  from  the  Tower  and 
money  was  sent  for  the  relief  of  the  immigrants.  They 
were  sent  to  South  Carolina,  an  additional  inducement 
being  the  bounty  allowed  to  foreign  Protestants  by  the 
Provincial  Assembly,  in  consequence  of  which,  when  their 
source  of  relief  from  England  would  be  exhausted,  another 
would  become  available  upon  their  arrival  in  America. 
Two  ships  were  equipped,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  stands 
of  arms  were  ordered  from  the  Tower  for  their  defense, 
to  be  used  after  their  arrival  in  South  Carolina,  which 
occurred  in  April,  1764.  The  government  of  South  Caro- 
lina (under  Governor  Boone)  voted  five  hundred  pounds 
sterling  to  be  distributed  among  the  "Palatines."  Captain 
Calhoun  with  a  detachment  of  Rangers  conducted  them 
to  their  location,  Londonderry  Township,  in  Abbeville 
County,  where  the  captain  owned  an  estate.  As  usual 
these  settlers  brought  their  own  (Lutheran)  pastor  with 
them,  and  built  St.  George's  Church  in  1788.  What  fre- 
quently happened  on  the  frontier  among  Presbyterian, 
Reformed,  and  Lutheran  congregations,   occurred  here, 


THE   GERMANS   IN  THE  CAROLINAS       225 

viz.:  they  transferred^  their  allegiance  to  the  Methodist, 
or  to  the  Baptist  Church,  emotional  preaching  appealing 
more  strongly  to  the  frontiersmen. 

A  second  county  with  German  settlers  was  Barnwell. 
This  settlement  was  doubtless  formed,  by  the  breaking-up 
of  the  Dutch  colony  on  James  Island  (below  Charleston), 
by  gradual  absorption  of  the  German  and  Swiss  colony  at 
Purysburg,  and  by  the  influx  of  other  German  settlers 
from  Orangeburg  County  on  the  northeast. 

Third:  settlements  were  made  along  the  boundary-line 
of  Richland  and  Fairfield  counties  on  Cedar  and  Dutch- 
man's creeks,  probably  from  Saxe-Gotha  and  Orangeburg 
counties.  On  Cedar  Creek  there  was  once  a  German 
church,  incorporated  in  1738,  the  "German  Protestant 
Church  of  Apii-Forum,"  later  absorbed  by  the  Methodist 
congregation. 

Fourth:  the  Newberry  County  Germans,  who  were 
mostly  descendants  from  the  original  Germans  in  Saxe- 
Gotha  Township,  with  occasional  additions  from  North 
Carolina  and  Virginia. 

Fifth  :  the  New  Windsor  colony,  located  in  the  southern 
part  of  Edgefield  County  along  the  Savannah  River,  oppo- 
site the  city  of  Augusta,  Georgia.  A  number  of  Germans 
located  here,  who  were  brought  over  under  the  lead- 
ership and  perhaps  at  the  solicitation  of  the  Reverend 
Bartholomew  Zauberbiihler,  once  of  Orangeburg  County.^ 
John  Jacob  Riemensperger  brought  over  a  later  group, 
under  commission  of  the  provincial  government  of  South 
Carolina,  and  also  took  some  colonists  to  Saxe-Gotha.   The 

^  The  Lutheran  missionary,  R.  J.  Miller,  visited  the  settlement  at  Hard 
Labor  Creek  in  1811,  and  preaching  at  what  was  once  the  German  Meeting 
House,  said:  "  Here  the  Methodists  and  Baptists  have  pulled  each  other  out 
of  the  pulpit." 

2  See  above,  pp.  219-221.  Cf.  Bernheira,  p.  169. 


226  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

people  of  German  descent  now  located  in  the  central  part 
of  Edgefield  County,  came  originally  from  New  Windsor 
and  from  Saxe-Gotha  Township. 

A  sixth  settlement,  Old  Indian  Swamp,  was  probably 
located  in  Barnwell  County,  where  there  are  Lutheran 
churches  at  present.  Philip  Eisenmann  said  to  Muhlenberg 
in  1774  that  he  was  a  resident  of  Old  Indian  Swamp,  fifty 
miles  from  Charleston,  where  "he  and  his  neighbors  had 
accepted  as  a  preacher  a  young  man  lately  arrived  from 
Germany  and  who  might  answer  for  a  schoolmaster."  * 
The  church  called  the  German  Protestant  Church  of  St. 
George  on  Indian  Field  Swamp  was  incorporated  in  1788. 

The  extent  and  progress  of  the  German  settlements  in 
South  Carolina  are  well  illustrated  by  the  act  of  incorpora- 
tion of  the  fifteen  German  churches  of  the  interior  of 
South  Carolina  in  1788.  They  formed  a  union,  and  the 
constitution  of  their  "Corpus  Evangelicum  "  was  signed 
by  nineteen  ministers  and  candidates  for  the  ministry.^ 

1  Cf.  Bernheim,  pp.  169-170. 

^  The  Reverend  Frederick  Daser  was  chosen  senior  of  the  ministry, 
the  Reverend  Wallberg,  secretary.  The  seven  German  ministers  were:  F. 
Daser  (Lutheran),  Christian  Theus  (Reformed),  J.  G.  Bamberg  (Lutheran), 
F.  A.  Wallberg  (Lutheran),  C.  F.  Froelich  (Reformed),  F.  J.  Wallern 
(Lutheran),  M.  C.  Binnicher  (Lutheran). 

The  names  of  the  churches  were  as  follows:  — 

(1)  Frederician  Church  of  Cattel's  Creek. 

(2)  The  German  Calvinistic  Church  of  St.  John,  on  the  Fourhole. 

(3)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  St.  Matthew,  in  Amelia  Township. 

(4)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  Salem,  on  Sandy  Run. 

(5)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  Mt.  Zion,  on  Twelve-Mile  Creek. 

(6)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  Bethel,  on  High-Hill  Creek. 

(7)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  St.  Peter,  on  Eighteen-Mile  Creek. 

(8)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  St.  Martin. 

(9)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  Bethlehem,  on  Forest's  (Fust's) 

Ford. 

(10)  The  German  Protestant  Church  of  Bethany,  on  Green  Creek. 

(11)  The  German  Protestant  Church  of  Apii-Forura,  on  Cedar  Creek. 


THE   GERMANS   IN   THE   CAROLINAS       227 

These  fifteen  churches  probably  comprised  the  entire  Ger- 
ment  element  in  the  interior  of  South  Carolina  in  1788, 
i.  e.,  five  years  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Since  no  large  additions  came  during  the  war,  we  may 
suppose  that  the  German  population  of  South  Carolina  in 
1775  was  not  much  less  than  here  represented. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  German  church  of  Charles- 
ton did  not  belong  to  this  union,  though  it  was  by  this 
time  large  and  influential.  The  German  population  in 
Charleston  had  increased  greatly  and  had  immortalized 
itself  by  several  cooperative  foundations.  The  first,  the 
"  German  Benevolent  Society,"  Muhlenberg  praises  as  the 
"flower  and  crown  of  the  German  nation  in  this  place." 
It  was  founded  in  1766,  and  in  a  little  more  than  eight 
years  had  upwards  of  eighty  members.  The  association 
had  a  funded  capital,  at  first  of  four  hundred  pounds 
sterHng,  the  interest  of  which  was  applied  for  the  relief 
of  every  needy  member  (or  of  his  widow  or  orphans),  who 
had  been  connected  with  the  society  for  seven  years,  and 
had  paid  his  contributions.  The  other  foundation  was  the 
German  Fusileer  Company,  which  served  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.*  The  fact  of  Charleston's  being  excluded 
from  the  church  organization  of  the  interior  of  South 
Carolina  furnishes  an  illustration  of  an  interesting-  histor- 

(12)  The  German  Protestant  Church,  dedicated  to  Queen  Charlotte,  on 

Slippery  Creek. 

(13)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  St.  George,  on  Hard  Labor  Creek. 

(14)  The  German  Lutheran  Church  of  St.  Jacob,  on  Wateree  Creek. 

(15)  The  German  Protestant  Church  of  St.  George,  on  Indian  Field 

Swamp. 

Of  these  fifteen  churches  nine  were  Lutheran,  and  seven  of  the  nine  Luth- 
eran churches  are  in  existence  at  the  present  day.  All  of  the  Reformed 
churches  ceased  to  exist,  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  they  were  not  cared  for 
by  ministers,  the  congregations  then  joining  other  churches;  frequently  also 
the  record  was  lost.  Bernheim,  pp.  300  ff. 

1  See  Chapter  xi,  p.  340. 


228  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

ical  fact,  that  the  frontier  chose  to  settle  its  own  affairs, 
independent  of  and  sometimes  in  opposition  to  the  sea- 
coast.  Moreover  the  people  at  the  sea  knew  very  little 
about  what  was  going  on  at  the  frontier.  In  the  journal 
of  the  Reverend  Arnold  Roschen  we  find  the  statement : 
"  We  heard  such  dreadful  reports  of  the  people  where  my 
congregations  are  situated"  (Rowan  County,  North  Caro- 
lina), "which,  however,  God  be  praised,  arose  from  the 
fact,  that  in  Charleston  the  citizens  are  as  badly  informed 
as  in  Germany  concerning  this  country."^  The  overland 
journey  of  the  pastor  to  his  flock  lasted  fourteen  days. 

There  were  also  a  large  number  of  German  colonists  in 
the  interior  of  North  Carolina.  They  did  not,  however,  as 
in  South  Carolina,  come  from  the  seacoast,  that  is,  directly 
from  Europe,  but  they  had  treked  from  Pennsylvania. 
They  arranged  themselves  on  vacant  lands  to  the  eastward 
and  westward  of  the  Yadkin  River,  while  the  Scotch-Irish 
from  Pennsylvania,  who  had  lived  on  friendly  terms  with 
the  Germans  in  that  province,  soon  followed  them  south- 
ward and  occupied  vacant  lands  mostly  to  the  westward 
or  southward  of  the  German  settlers,  along  the  Catawba 
River.  The  Germans  on  the  Yadkin,  in  course  of  time, 
went  westward  and  settled  also  on  the  Catawba,  becoming 
quite  as  numerous  as  the  Irish,  and  with  them  going  west- 
ward again  from  there. 

The  Germans  usually  left  their  home,  i.  e.,  Pennsylvania, 
in  autumn,  after  all  the  harvesting  was  over  and  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  year's  labor  were  in  hand.  They  arrived  at  the 
new  settlements  just  before  the  commencement  of  the  win- 
ter season,  bringing  with  them  the  means  of  passing  through 
the  winter  without  great  hardship.  The  first  of  the  pioneer 
trains  came  about  1745 ;  the  large  migrations  did  not  be- 

1  Bernheim,  pp.  319-320. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  THE   CAROLINAS       229 

gin  until  1750.  Tlieir  history  is  partly  to  be  gleaned  from 
tradition,  partly  from  family  records  contained  in  old  Ger- 
man Bibles ;  it  is  safely  established  in  the  records  of  land- 
purchases,  which,  however,  always  appear  some  years  after 
actual  settlement.  The  settlers  were  industrious,  econom- 
ical, and  thrifty  farmers,  who  generally  avoided  settling  in 
towns.  They  were  well  informed  in  their  own  branch  of 
industry,  shrewd  to  recognize  their  own  advantage ;  they 
despised  the  business  of  the  merchant,  barter  and  trade, 
as  beneath  them,  though  many  of  their  descendants  at  later 
periods  became  very  successful  in  mercantile  pursuits. 
Like  all  Pennsylvania  Germans  they  were  religious,  well 
read  in  the  Bible  and  devotional  books.  Their  German 
school-teachers,  in  the  absence  of  ministers,  read  prayers 
to  them  and  sermons  on  Sundays,  buried  the  dead  and 
baptized  children.  For  a  decade  or  more  no  regular  pastors, 
occasionally  only  a  missionary,  appeared  to  preach  among 
them  and,  if  he  would,  baptize  the  children. 

Since  there  came  no  increase  from  the  seacoast,  but 
from  Pennsylvania  alone,  it  took  a  score  of  years,  or  until 
the  seventies,  before  the  congregations  became  numerous 
enough  to  build  churches.  Then  they  seriously  felt  the 
need  of  ministers,  but  Muhlenberg  in  Pennsylvania  had 
none  to  spare.  Characteristic  ^  it  is,  that  the  German 
settlers  of  the  interior  of  North  Carolina  then  decided  to 
act  for  themselves.  In  1772  Christopher  Rintelmann  from 
Organ  Church  in  Rowan  County,  and  Christopher  Layrle 
from  St.  John's  Church,  Mecklenburg  County  (now  Cabar- 
rus), were  sent  as  a  delegation  to  Europe  for  the  pur- 
pose of  applying  to  the  Consistory  Council  of  Hanover 
for  ministers  and  school-teachers  to  supply  the  various 
Lutheran  congregations  then  organized  in  North  Carolina. 

^  Showing  again  the  independence  of  the  frontier. 


230  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

They  applied  at  Hanover  and  not  at  Halle,  because  the 
American  colonies  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  king 
of  England,  who  was  also  the  elector  of  Hanover.  They 
succeeded  in  getting  at  least  one  minister,  the  Reverend 
Adolph  Nussmann,  and  as  their  school-teacher,  Gottfried 
Arndt.  Both  ^  arrived  safely  in  North  Carolina  in  1773, 
and  more  would  probably  have  come  had  not  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  cut  off  all  intercourse  with  Europe.  Nuss- 
mann was  the  right  man  for  the  place.  He  served  Organ 
Church  (Salisbury,  Rowan  County),  and  St.  John's  in  the 
present  Cabarrus  County,  and  made  mission  tours  into 
Davidson,  Guilford,  Orange,  Stokes,  and  Forsyth  counties, 
"  strengthening  what  remained."  These  tours  tell  us  also 
where  the  German  settlers  were  located.  Schoolmaster 
Arndt  was  subsequently  ordained  and  became  an  efficient 
helper.  After  the  Revolution  the  Lutheran  Church  organ- 
ization was  strengthened  and  the  number  of  settlers  greatly 
increased. 

The  cause  for  the  miration  to  North  Carolina  was 
mainly  the  difficulty  of  getting  land  in  Pennsylvania.  It 
could  be  bought  from  the  Indians  in  small  parcels  only 
on  the  frontier,  and  these  were  quickly  taken,  while  in 
the  easterly  sections  no  land  could  be  got  at  all  cheaply. 
Before  the  Revolution  the  settlers  did  not  cross  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains,  but  when  seeking  new  land,  they  fol- 
lowed the  mountain  ranges  to  the  south  and  west,  keeping 
on  their  eastern  slope.^  Speaking  of  the  interior  of  North 
Carolina,  Bernheim  says  :  "  Had  a  traveller  from  Pennsyl- 
vania visited,  about  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  (1820-1830), 
portions  of  the  present  counties  of  Alamance,  Guilford, 

*  The  names  are  spelled  Niiszmann,  and  Arnd,  in  Hallesche  Nachrichten 
(reprint),  vol.  i,  p.  32. 
^  Cf.  also  Williamson's  History  of  North  Carolina,  vol.  ii,  p.  71. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  THE   CAROLINAS       231 

Davidson,  Rowan,  Cabarrus,  Stanly,  Iredell,  Catawba, 
Lincoln,  and  some  others  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina, 
he  might  have  believed  himself  to  have  unexpectedly  come 
upon  some  part  of  the  old  Keystone  State."  Pennsylvania 
German  was  still  spoken  about  1820-30.* 

An  interesting  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  German 
settlements  in  North  Carolina  is  that  of  the  Moravian 
foundations  in  Forsyth  and  Stokes  counties.  In  1751 
the  Moravians  purchased  one  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
land  in  North  Carolina  from  Lord  Granville,  president  of 
the  Privy  Council  of  the  government  of  Great  Britain. 
Bishop  Spangenberg  was  commissioned  to  locate  and  sur- 
vey the  land,  and  accordingly  he  journeyed  with  some 
friends,  during  the  month  of  August,  from  Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania,  to  Edenton,  North  Carolina.  He  first  visited 
the  head-waters  of  the  Catawba,  New,  and  Yadkin  rivers, 
but  after  many  hardships,  decided  to  locate  farther  east-, 
ward,  in  Forsyth  County,  to  the  east  of  the  Yadkin  River. 
The  deed  was  made  out  for  98,985  acres,  signed  and 
sealed  August  7,  1753,  and  the  land  received  the  name 
"The  Wachovia  Tract,"  in  honor  of  one  of  the  titles  of 
Count  Zinzendorf,  who  was  lord  of  the  Wachau  Valley 
in  Austria.  In  the  autumn  of  1753,  twelve  single  brethren 
with  a  wagon  and  six  horses,  some  cattle  and  necessary 
household  utensils  for  husbandry,  made  the  long  journey 
from  Bethlehem  through  the  Shenandoah  Valley  to  North 
Carolina.^    Seven  new  colonists  arrived   in  1754.    They 

*  Many  of  the  family  names  found  in  Montgomery,  Berks,  Lehigh,  and 
Northampton  counties,  Pennsylvania,  are  also  found  in  the  North  Carolina 
counties,  e.  g.,  Klein  (Cline),  Trexler,  Schlough,  Seitz  (Sides),  Reinhardt, 
Bibers  (Beaver),  Kohlman  (Coleman),  Derr  (Dry),  Berger  (Barrier),  Behr- 
inger  (Barriuger),  etc.  Schwartzwiilder  (Blackwelder),  a  family  of  seven 
sons,  had  four  of  them  (two  killed)  in  the  battle  of  Camden,  South  Carolina. 
Bernheim,  p.  247,  etc. 

^  Their  journey  is  described  in  a  diary  kept  in  the  Archives  of  the  Mora- 


232  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

founded  the  town  of  Betliabara  (the  house  of  passage) 
which  was  to  be  a  temporary  abode  until  the  central  set- 
tlement should  have  been  built.  Bishop  David  Nitschman 
visited  them  in  1755  and  consecrated  the  first  meeting- 
house. In  1758  the  Cherokee  and  Catawba  Indians,  who 
went  to  war  against  the  Indians  on  the  Ohio,  marched 
through  Bethabara  in  large  companies,  often  several  hun- 
dred. The  Cherokee  Indians  seem  to  have  been  pleased 
with  the  treatment  received,  for  they  described  Bethabara 
to  their  nation  as  "the  Dutch  Fort,  where  there  are  good 
people  and  much  bread." 

In  1759  the  town  of  Bethany  was  laid  out,  three  miles 
to  the  north  of  Bethabara,  which  in  1765  contained 
eighty-eight  inhabitants,  while  Bethany  had  ten  less.  In 
1766  the  beginning  was  made  in  the  building  of  Salem, 
the  principal  settlement  of  the  "  Unitas  Fratrum "  in 
North  Carolina,  five  miles  southward  from  Bethabara. 
Ten  new  colonists  came  over  direct  from  Germany  by 
way  of  London  and  Charleston,  a  sign  of  growing  promin- 
ence. As  at  Herrnhut,  Niesky,  and  Bethlehem,  separate 
buildings  were  erected  for  men  and  women.  Intermarriage 
was  not  permitted  until  some  years  after.  Two  other  set- 
tlements followed  in  the  Wachovia  tract,  one,  Friesburg, 
in  1769-70,  receiving  a  considerable  number  of  settlers 
from  Germany  and  Maine.  The  other,  the  Hope  settle- 
ment, was  founded  in  1772  by  colonists  from  Frederick, 
Maryland.  During  the  Revolutionary  War  the  Moravians 

vian  Congregation  at  Salem,  North  Carolina,  translated  in  the  Virginia  Mag- 
azine, vol.  xii,  pp.  IM  ff.  The  original  is  printed  in  German  American  Annals, 
vol.  iii  (Americana  Germanica,  vol.  vii),  pp.  342  £E.  and  369  ff.  The  following 
is  the  list  of  Moravian  brethren  who  located  in  Wachovia  and  founded  the 
village  of  Bethabara  :  Grube,  Meekly,  Feldhausen,  Lung,  Pfeil,  Beroth,  all  of 
Germany  ;  Kalberlahn  and  Ingebretsen  of  Norway  ;  Peterson  of  Denmark  ; 
Loesch  of  New  York  ;  Loesch  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Lischer  of  unknown  origin. 
The  last  three  have  German  names. 


THE   GERMANS   IN  THE   CAROLINAS       233 

of  Wachovia  were  exempted  from  military  duty  by  the 
payment  of  a  triple  tax.  In  1804  the  Salem  Female  Acad- 
emy was  founded,  which  has  educated  the  daughters  of 
prominent  families  of  North  and  South  Carolina,  Virginia, 
and  other  Southern  States.  The  Moravian  settlement  at 
Salem-Winston  is  still  the  centre  of  the  Moravian  denom- 
ination in  the  South.  Their  quaint  customs  and  beautiful 
music,  particularly  at  Easter,  attract  a  large  number  of 
admirers  from  all  the  surrounding  country. 

The  Carolinas,  as  shown  in  the  preceding  pages,  re- 
ceived a  good  share  of  early  German  settlers  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  Newbern  in  North  Carolina  was  the  earliest 
German  colony,  1710,  but  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  be- 
came the  distributing  centre  of  the  German  immigrants  in 
the  South.  Germans  became  most  numerous  in  the  so- 
called  Saxe-Gotha  district,  the  present  Orangeburg  and 
Lexington  counties  of  South  Carolina,  and  thence  spread 
to  neighboring  counties  and  to  the  westward.  The  interior 
of  North  Carolina  likewise  received  an  ever  increasing 
number  of  German  settlers,  who  came  from  Pennsylvania, 
beginning  about  1750.  The  Moravians  established  a  col- 
ony at  Salem-Winston,  which  has  flourished  ever  since 
its  foundation. 


CHAPTER  IX 

GERMAN  SETTLEMENTS  BEFORE   THE   REVOLUTION   IN 
GEORGIA  AND  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  Salzburgers  ia  Georgia,  1734 — Founding  of  Ebenezer  —  The  "great 
embarkation,"  1736  —  Storm  at  sea  —  John  Wesley  —  The  Moravians 
leave  for  Pennsylvania  —  The  location  for  Ebenezer  changed  —  Governor 
Oglethorpe's  kindness  —  The  Reverend  J.  M.  Bolzius  and  the  Reverend 
I.  C.  Gronau  actual  governors  of  the  colony  —  The  question  of  negro 
slavery  —  Industries  :  milling  and  silk  manufacture  —  The  building  of 
churches  —  A  church-quarrel  arbitrated  by  the  Reverend  H.  M.  Muhlen- 
berg —  Prosperity  of  the  colony. 

Waldo's  interest  in  German  colonization  in  New  England —  The  founding  of 
Waldoburg  (1741)  in  the  Broad  Bay  district  of  Maine  —  Sufferings  of  the 
first  colonists  —  The  war  with  France,  1744 — The  Indian  massacre  (1746) 
—  Rebuilding  of  Waldoburg  and  accessions  to  colonists  —  Massachusetts 
attempts  to  encourage  German  immigration  —  Crellius  and  Luther  as 
agents  —  Colonies  in  Massachusetts  at  Adamsdorf,  Bernardsdorf,  Leydens- 
dorf  —  Nova  Scotia  —  Colonies  in  Maine  :  Frankfort,  Dresden,  Bremen, 
etc.  —  Disputed  land  claims  and  migration  to  South  Carolina  —  German- 
town  near  Boston  —  Strength  of  the  German  element. 

Georgia,  the  farthest  south  of  the  American  colonies, 
became  the  home  of  the  Salzburgers,  immediately  after 
the  earliest  settlement  at  Savannah.  They  were  German 
Protestants*  exiled  in  1731  by  a  decree  of  Archbishop 

*  Among  the  Salzburgers  there  were  descendants  of  the  Waldensians, 
named  after  their  founder  Waldo,  a  citizen  of  Lyons  in  southern  France. 
The  sect  was  formed  about  1170,  and  its  chief  seats  were  in  the  Alpine  val- 
leys of  Piedmont,  Dauphine,  and  Provence.  They  have  often  been  included 
under  the  name  Albigenses  (from  Albi,  a  district  in  Languedoc).  These  first 
Protestant  sects  in  Europe,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  repre- 
sented a  purer  form  of  Christianity  than  the  dogmatic  mother  church.  Wars 
of  extermination  were  waged  in  their  homes,  and  popes  preached  crusades 
against  them  (Pope  Innocent  III,  in  1208).  The  Waldensians  welcomed  the 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  as  a  result  again  suffered  terrible 
persecutions.  A  portion  of  them  were  supposed  to  have  settled  in  the  Alpine 
district  of  Salzburg  in  the  secluded  glens  and  valleys  of  the  Deferegger 
Mountains  (now  in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  the  Tyrol). 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   GEORGIA  235 

Leopold,  Count  of  Firmian,  who  with  fanatical  zeal  drove 
out  from  his  domains  all  who  were  not  Catholics.  More 
than  thirty  thousand  Protestants  were  forced  to  leave  the 
Austrian  archbishopric  of  Salzburg,  but  after  many  hard- 
ships they  were  welcomed  in  Protestant  countries,  notably 
in  Prussia,  where  seventeen  thousand  of  them  found 
homes. 

About  the  same  time,  in  1732,  King  George  II  of 
England  empowered  twenty-one  gentlemen  to  colonize  the 
southern  part  of  the  Carohnas,  to  be  known  as  the  colony 
of  Georgia.  They  were  to  select  only  worthy  immigrants, 
and  under  such  a  category  were  named  Scotch  Highland- 
ers and  German  Salzburgers.  In  the  same  year  General 
James  Edward  Oglethorpe  sailed  with  the  first  transport 
of  English  colonists  and  on  January  20,  1733,  arrived  at 
the  Savannah  River,  where  he  founded  the  city  of  that 
name.  The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Know- 
ledge^ in  London  cooperated  with  the  Georgia  land 
company  for  the  benefit  of  the  Salzburg  exiles.  Liberal 
contributions  were  made  by  the  land  company,  and  the 
religious  society  undertook  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  im- 
migrants to  Rotterdam  and  support  a  minister  for  them. 
A  first  group  of  Salzburg  immigrants  destined  for  America 
was  formed  at  Berchtesgaden,"  and  under  the  leadership  of 
Baron  vpn  Reck  they  reached  Rotterdam,  November  27, 
1733.  There  the  ministers  Bolzius  and  Gronau  awaited 
them.  The  former  had  been  the  superintendent  of  the 

>  "Societas  promovenda  cognitione  Christi."  Influential  friends  of  the 
Salzburgers  were  the  Reverend  Dr.  F.  M.  Ziegenhagen,  Lutheran  chaplain 
of  the  court  of  St.  Jaines,  London  ;  the  Reverend  Dr.  G.  A.  Francke,  son  of 
the  founder  of  the  orphan  asylum  in  Halle  (Prussian  Province  of  Saxony)  ; 
and  the  Reverend  Dr.  Samuel  Urlsperger,  pastor  of  St.  Anna  Lutheran 
Church  in  Augsburg  (Bavaria). 

'  Then  included  in  the  archbishopric  of  Salzburg. 


\ 


236  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

Lutheran  orphan  asylum  in  Halle,  and  the  latter  a  teacher 
in  the  same  institution.  The  immigrants  celebrated  their 
Christmas  in  England,  and  set  sail  a  few  days  after  under 
the  guidance  of  their  two  ministers  and  Baron  von  Reck. 
They  arrived  at  Charlestown  (Charleston,  South  Carolina), 
in  March,  1734,  and  soon  after  at  Savannah,  where  the 
entire  population,  among  them  a  number  of  Germans, 
awaited  them  at  the  landing,  while  cannons  booming  bade 
them  welcome.  General  Oglethorpe  allowed  the  Salz- 
burgers  to  select  the  site  for  their  colony.  Von  Reck  and 
several  others,  after  a  tour  of  inspection,  chose  land  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  river,  about  twenty-five  miles  from 
the  settlement  of  Savannah.  It  was  at  the  mouth  of  a 
small  river  flowing  into  the  Savannah,  about  forty  miles 
distant  from  the  sea.  The  devout  colonists,  "  after  singing 
a  psalm  ^  set  up  a  rock  which  they  found  upon  the  spot, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  the  pious  Samuel  named  the  place 
Ebenezer  (the  stone  of  help),  for  '  hitherto  hath  the  Lord 
helped  us.' "  ^  The  usual  difficulties  of  early  colonists  were 
increased  by  the  absence  of  carpenters  and  mechanics, 
until  this  deficiency  was  removed  by  the  second  shipload 
of  immigrants,  bringing  fifty-seven  additional  Salzburgers. 

(The  Georgia  company  was  liberal  in  every  respect,  fur- 
nishing boards  for  houses  and  other  colonists'  supplies. 
Von  Reck  returned  to  Germany  with  the  purpose  of 
!  bringing  a  still  larger  number  of  immigrants.  This  re- 
sulted in  what  has  been  called  the  "  great  embarkation," 
bringing  eighty    Salzburgers,  twenty-seven   Moravians^ 

^  P.  A.  Strobel,  The  Salzburgers  and  their  Descendants,  p.  63.  (Baltimore, 
1855.)  Strobel's  work  is  authoritative  on  the  subject. 

^  1  Samuel,  vii,  12. 

^  The  Moravians  made  no  permanent  settlement  in  Georgia.  Those  that 
came  with  the  Salzburgers  (who  were  Lutherans),  remained  but  a  short  time 
until  the  troubles  with  Spain  forced  the  colonists  to  armed  resistance. 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   GEORGIA  237 

(under  the  leadership  of  Nitschmann),  and  a  number  of 
English  and  Scotch  Protestants. 

They  arrived  at  Savannah  in  the  beginning  of  Febru- 
ary, 1736,  after  a  voyage  that  has  become  memorable  for 
an  occurrence  of  great  importance.  On  board  the  ship 
were  John  Wesley,  founder  of  Methodism,  and  his  brother 
Charles.  The  former,  on  the  invitation  of  General  Ogle- 
thorpe, was  on  his  way  to  Georgia  with  the  twofold  pur- 
pose of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians,  and  improv- 
ing the  religious  condition  of  the  colony.  The  German 
passengers  on  board  had  attracted  John  Wesley's  atten- 
tion by  evidences  of  their  strong  faith  and  humble  piety. 
On  the  Sabbath  day,  about  noon,  while  the  Salzburgers 
and  other  Germans  were  assembled  in  religious  worship,  a 
storm  suddenly  arose,  greater  in  violence  than  any  other 
that  they  had  experienced  even  on  that  tempestuous  voy- 
age. Amid  the  commotion  of  the  elements  every  heart 
trembled  with  fear,  and  even  Mr.  Wesley  was  confessedly 
alarmed.  But  it  was  very  different  with  the  Salzburgers 
and  Moravians.  While  the  raging  waters  threatened  to 
carry  the  worshipers  to  an  instant  doom,  they  calmly  sang 
praises  of  their  Creator,  exhibiting  perfect  self-control, 
and  utter  absence  of  fear  for  themselves.  When  the  storm 
had  spent  its  fury,  Mr.  Wesley  inquired  of  one  of  the 
Germans,  "  Were  you  not  afraid  ?  "  He  replied,  "  I  thank 
God,  no."  "  But  were  not  your  women  and  children 
afraid?  "  He  replied  mildly,  "  No,  our  women  and  child- 
ren are  not  afraid  to  die."  ^  The  impression  made  upon 
Mr.  Wesley  by  the  conduct  of  these  people,  so  great  in 

Bearing  arms  being  contrary  to  their  religion,  they  withdrew  from  Georgia 
and  founded  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  in  1741.  Bancroft,  in  his  history  of 
the  United  States,  erroneously  calls  the  Salzburgers  Moravians. 

*  Quoted  from  the  Journal  of  the  Reverend  John  Wesley,  under  date  of 
Sunday,  January  25,  1736. 


238  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

faith,  was  strengthened  upon  his  arrival  at  Savannah. 
There  he  was  introduced  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Spangen- 
berg,  later  bishop  of  the  Moravian  Church,  and  to  the 
Moravian  pastor,  Boehler,  from  whom,  John  Wesley  sub- 
sequently declared,  he  had  derived  more  light  than  from 
any  other  man  with  whom  he  had  ever  conversed.  "  I  was 
ignorant  of  the  nature  of  saving  faith,  apprehended  it  to 
mean  no  more  than  a  firm  assent  to  all  the  propositions 
contained  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,"  remarked  John 
Wesley.  Two  years  after  his  first  visit  to  Georgia,  having 
returned  to  England,  he  wrote  the  following  note  in  his 
journal :  "  It  is  now  two  years  and  nearly  four  months, 
since  I  went  to  America  to  teach  the  Georo^ia  Indians  the 
nature  of  Christianity ;  but  what  have  I  learned  of  myself 
in  the  meanwhile?  Why  (what  of  all  I  least  expected) 
that  I,  who  went  to  America  to  convert  ^  others,  was  never 
myself  converted  to  God."  The  voyage  to  America,  with 
the  impressions  received  from  the  pious  Salzburgers  and 
from  interviews  with  the  Moravian  pastors,  became  to 
John  Wesley  one  of  the  important  epochs  of  his  life,  and 
this  fact  is  worthy  of  record,  as  one  of  the  influences  of 
colonial  America  upon  ancient  Europe. 

Governor  Oglethorpe  wished  to  plant  a  new  colony 
farther  to  the  south,  for  the  defense  of  the  older  settle- 
ments against  Spanish  America.  A  fort  was  therefore  pro- 
jected on  St.  Simon  Island,  and  some  newly  arriving 
Salzburgers  were  asked  to  become  its  defenders.  Most  of 

*  John  Wesley,  the  founder  of  the  Methodist  churches,  was  converted 
("  felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed ")  at  a  meeting  which  he  attended 
among  the  Moravians  in  Aldersgate  Street,  London,  during  the  reading  of 
Luther's  preface  to  Paul's  Epistles  to  the  Romans,  in  which  the  great  re- 
former has  given  such  a  clear  exegesis  of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith.  Cf.  Strobel,  pp.  79,  81,  82.  Also  C.T.  Winchester, /o^n  Wesley.  (New 
York  :  The  Macmillan  Company,  1906.) 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   GEORGIA  239 

them,  however,  beheving  that  their  religion  forbade  the 
use  of  arms,  preferred  to  locate  at  Ebenezer,  and  Ogle- 
thorpe did  not  force  his  will  upon  them.  Nevertheless  a 
goodly  number  of  others  among  the  arriving  German 
immigrants  agreed  to  go  to  the  projected  fort  under  their 
captain,  Hermsdorf .  Their  settlement  was  called  Frederica, 
a  German  church  was  founded  there,  and  the  colony  was 
prosperous  in  1743,  when  a  traveler  spoke  of  it  as  "  a  quiet 
village  of  the  Salzburgers,  rurally  charming,  the  improve- 
ments everywhere  evincing  the  greatest  skill  and  industry, 
considering  its  late  settlement."  The  village  declined,  how- 
ever, after  1749,  and  in  1751  it  presented  ''the  melancholy 
prospect  of  homes  without  inhabitants,  barracks  without 
soldiers."  ^ 

Two  years  after  the  foundation  of  Ebenezer  the  Salz- 
burgers found  that  its  site  was  very  badly  chosen.  Strobel 
says,  "  it  was  a  region  which  is  composed  of  hills  and  plains 
that  are  sterile,  and  upon  which  no  one,  having  a  correct 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  the  soil,  would  ever  think 
of  settling  a  farm."  ^  The  location  was  about  four  miles 
below  Springfield,  the  present  seat  of  justice  for  Effingham 
County.  To  add  to  their  disappointment  came  diseases  in- 
cident to  exposure  and  excessive  fatigue  in  a  warm  climate. 
The  mortality  which  existed  at  Ebenezer  was  heart-rending.' 

At  this  time  there  seem  to  have  been  about  two  hun- 
dred Salzburgers  settled  at  Ebenezer.  These  expressed  their 
dissatisfaction  with  the  location  of  the  colony  before  Gov- 
ernor Oglethorpe,  who  counseled  them  to  remain,  since 

^  Strobel,  p.  119.  The  name  St.  Simon  Island  is  still  used  for  the  coast 
section  of  Glynn  County,  Georgia.    Brunswick  is  the  largest  city  near  by. 

2  Strobel,  p.  67. 

^  Characteristic  in  the  reports  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bolzius  were  the  re- 
cords, that  disease  and  death  were  endured  with  Christian  resignation,  and 
earthly  pilgrimages  were  closed  with  joy  and  triumph. 


240  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

their  troubles  were  such  as  befell  all  new  colonists  when 
the  ground  had  just  been  cleared  of  forests,  and  since  the 
good  work  already  done,  in  case  of  removal,  would  all  be  lost. 
The  governor  allowed  them  to  act  according  to  their  choice, 
however,  and  the  result  was  that  they  changed  their  abode 
to  another,  about  eight  miles  distant,  lower  on  the  Savan- 
nah River.  The  site  of  New  Ebenezer  was  located  on  a 
high  ridge  within  a  short  distance  of  the  river,  and  be- 
cause of  the  peculiar  color  of  the  soil,  called  Ked  Bluff.  * 
The  Savannah  River  was  on  the  east.  Little  (Lockner's) 
Creek  and  a  lake  (Neidlinger's  Sea)  on  the  south,  and  on 
the  north  the  meandering  course  of  Ebenezer  Creek.  The 
surrounding  country  was  covered  with  a  fine  growth  of 
forest  trees,  but  unfortunately  for  the  permanent  prosper- 
ity of  the  town,  there  were  low  swamps  on  three  sides  of 
it,  that  at  times  became  generators  of  disease. 

The  town  was  not  laid  out  like  Germantown  in  Pennsyl- 
vania on  two  sides  of  one  long  street,  but  in  the  checker- 
board style,  with  streets  at  right  angles,  three  from  east 
to  west  crossed  by  four  from  north  to  south.  City  lots 
were  portioned  out  and  market-places  measured  off.^ 
Spaces  for  a  church,  parsonage,  school-house,  public 
storehouse,  and  orphan  asylum  were  laid  out.  Pastures 
were  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  and  beyond  Little 
Creek  were  the  farms,  each  of  fifty  acres.  The  country 
to  the  north  beyond  Ebenezer  Creek  was  occupied  by  the 
Uchee  Indians,  with  whom  the  settlers  seem  always  to  have 
lived  in  peace.  New  Ebenezer  was  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  river  from  Purysburg,  an  earlier  settlement,^  whence 
some  Germans  came  over  to  join  the  Salzburgers.  Some 

*  In  the  present  Effingham  County. 

2  Strobel,  pp.  91  S. 

3  See  Chapter  vin,  pp.  216  £E. 


JOHX   MARTIN   BOLZIUS 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   GEORGIA  241 

of  the  newcomers  were  growers  of  silk.  At  a  time  when 
silk  manufacture  in  all  other  colonies  had  been  abandoned 
(i.  e.,  1750)  the  Salzburgers  still  persevered,  and  every 
year  they  became  more  skilled  in  this  industry.*  In  1751 
they  sent  over  to  England  a  thousand  pounds  of  cocoons 
and  seventy-four  pounds  two  ounces  of  raw  silk,  yielding 
them  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  ten  pounds  sterling. 

A  traveler^  described  the  settlement  in  the  following 
way  :  "  The  people  live  in  the  greatest  harmony  with  their 
ministers  and  with  one  another,  as  one  family.  They  have 
no  drunken,  idle,  or  profligate  people  among  them,  but  are 
industrious,  and  many  have  grown  wealthy.  Their  industry 
has  been  blessed  with  remarkable  and  uncommon  success, 
to  the  envy  of  their  neighbors,  having  great  plenty  of  all 
the  necessary  conveniences  for  life  (except' clothing)  with- 
in themselves  ;  and  supply  this  town  (Savannah)  with 
bread-kind,  as  also  beef,  veal,  pork,  poultry,  etc."  Up  to 
the  year  1741  over  twelve  hundred  ^  German  Protestants 
had  arrived  in  Georgia,  most  of  them  becoming  landowners 
at  once,  receiving  support  from  friends  for  the  journey 
and  for  a  start  in  the  New  World,  in  fewer  cases  coming 
as  redemptioners. 

The  colony  was  governed  by  its  pastors,  the  Reverend 
John  Martin  Bolzius,  and  the  Reverend  Israel  Christian 
Gronau,  who  in  turn  were  under  the  superintendency  and 
advisorship  of  the  English  trustees  for  the  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  and  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran    Church    in  Germany.  The  church   council  of 

^  Cf.  Strobel,  pp.  129-130.  The  Salzburgers  began  to  plant  mulberry  trees 
in  1736.  See  below. 

^  In  a  letter  by  Thomas  Jones,  dated  Savannah,  1740.  See  Strobel,  pp. 
111-112. 

'  According  to  a  statement  made  by  Mr.  Benjamin  Martyn,  Secretary  of 
the  Trustees.  Cf.  Strobel,  p.  115. 


242  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Ebenezer  subscribed  to  a  code  of  regulations^  drawn  up 
by  the  European  Lutheran  ministers,  Urlsperger,  Ziegen- 
hagen,  and  Francke.  One  of  the  regulations  required  the 
support  of  school-teachers  as  well  as  ministers,  another 
the  care  of  those  in  need,  such  as  widows  and  orphans. 
For  the  latter  an  orphan  asylum  ^  was  built  after  the  model 
of  the  Halle  institution,  and  strangely  enough  was  com- 
pleted earlier  than  the  church.  It  served  as  a  church  for 
the  many  years  before  a  house  of  worship  could  be  erected. 
The  two  pastors  formed  a  tribunal  governing  matters  spir- 
itual as  well  as  temporal,  and  were  most  unselfish  and  just 
in  their  rulings.  Their  judgments  seem  always  to  have 
been  satisfactory,  and  no  appeals  were  ever  taken  from 
their  decisions. 

The  Salzburgers  of  Ebenezer,  like  the  German  Quakers 
of  Germantown,  proved  their  high  moral  standard  by  their 
opposition  to  slavery.  The  trustees  of  the  colony  as  well 
as  the  ministers  were  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  negro 
slaves,  and  their  determined  stand  through  many  years 
threatened  to  cause  difficulties  with  the  larg-er  landowners 
of  the  province,  who,  as  elsewhere  in  the  South,  were  in- 
terested in  the  extension  of  the  slave-trade.  The  two  rea- 
sons assigned  by  the  citizens  of  Ebenezer  against  African 
slavery  were  firstly,  that  the  colony  was  an  asylum  for  the 
oppressed,  and  secondly,  that  negro  slaves  starved  the  poor 
laborer.  Another  argument  used  against  the  purchase  of 
negroes  was  the  danger  of  a  servile  war,  aggravated  by 
the  proximity  of  the  Spaniards.^  Pastor  Bolzius  was  one 

»  Strobel,  pp.  167-180. 

'  About  1738  there  were  seventeen  children  and  a  widow  in  the  orphan- 
house.  George  Whitefield  on  his  visit  was  very  much  pleased  by  the  "  little 
lambs  that  came  and  shook  me  by  the  hand  one  by  one."  Strobel,  pp.  110- 
111. 

3  These  arguments  were  stated  by  Baron  von  Reck.  Cf.  Strobel,  p.  103. 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   GEORGIA  243 

of  tlie  very  last  to  yield  his  opposition,  and  reproved  Mr. 
George  Whitefield  for  his  complacent  policy,  expressed  in 
Alexander  Pope's  maxim  :  "  Whatever  is,  is  right."  To 
relieve  themselves  of  their  embarrassment,  the  Salzburgers 
referred  the  slavery  question  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Urls- 
perger  of  the  parent  church  in  Augsburg.  The  latter  very 
diplomatically  advised  the  Salzburgers  to  yield  :  "  If  you 
take  slaves  in  faith,  and  with  the  intent  of  conducting 
them  to  Christ,  the  action  will  not  be  sin,  but  it  may  prove  a 
'  benediction.'  "  The  Reverend  Mr.  Bolzius  thereupon,  on 
behalf  of  himself  and  the  Salzburgers,  withdrew  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  repeal  of  the  law  prohibiting  negro  slavery/ 
Pastor  Gronau  died  in  1745,  mourned  by  the  whole 
colony,  but  by  no  one  more  sincerely  than  by  his  colleague, 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Bolzius.  The  latter's  ministerial  labors 
were  thereby  increased,  causing  his  numerous  other  bur- 
dens to  be  felt  all  the  more  heavily.  These  duties  were 
administrative,  including  the  trusteeship  of  the  funds  that 
had  been  collected  in  Europe  for  the  benefit  of  the  con- 
gregation at  Ebenezer.  He  invested  the  sums  received  in 
lands  and  mills,  which  he  superintended  himself  for  the 
benefit  of  the  colony.  The  necessary  building  stones  and 
other  equipments  were  imported  from  Germany  or  received 
from  General  Oglethorpe.  There  were  erected  two  grist- 
mills, a  saw-mill,  and  a  rice  stamping-mill,  all  the  property 
of  the  church,  the  income  from  which  was  devoted  to  the 
payment  of  ministers  and  charities.  Bolzius  was  also  inter- 
ested in  the  manufacture  of  silk.  In  1733  Mr.  Nicolas 
Amatis  of  Piedmont  was  induced  to  remove  to  Georgia  to 
instruct  the  colonists  in  the  rearinof  of  silkworms  and  the 
manufacture  of  silk.^  Mulberry  trees  were  planted  in  1736 

1  Strobel,  p.  105. 

^  Stevens's  History  of  Georgia,  quoted  by  Strobel,  p.  129. 


244  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

under  the  direction  of  the  pastor,  and  his  people  became 
very  successful  in  the  culture  of  the  silkworm.  In  1742 
five  hundred  trees  were  sent  to  Ebenezer  and  a  machine 
was  erected  for  the  preparation  of  silk.  To  encourage  the 
Germans  to  persevere  in  their  efforts,  the  trustees  (for 
the  settlement  of  Georgia)  gave  a  reeling-machine  to  each 
woman  who  would  master  the  art  of  spinning,  and  in 
addition  two  pounds  in  money.^  The  Salzburgers,  as 
above  mentioned,  persevered  longer  in  the  production  of 
silk  than  any  other  colony. 

The  successor  to  Pastor  Gronau  was  the  Reverend  Her- 
mann H.  Lembke,  sent  over  from  Germany  at  the  request 
of  Pastor  Bolzius  for  assistance.  The  choice  was  a  judicious 
one,  and  the  church  interests  prospered.  Four  churches 
besides  the  one  at  Savannah  were  now  included  in  the 
"  Parish  of  St.  Matthew,"  viz. :  Jerusalem,  Zion,  Bethany, 
and  Goshen.  It  was  a  large  territory  for  two  pastors  to 
serve,  extending  over  more  than  thirty  miles,  in  part  through 
a  difficult  country.  The  German  settlements  covered  even 
a  wider  area,  their  farms  being  located  on  both  sides  of 
the  road  leading  from  Savannah  to  Augusta,  a  distance  of 
about  one  hundred  miles,  and  were  spread  out  on  the  banks 
of  the  Savannah  River,  and  on  Lockner,  Ebenezer,  and 
Mill  creeks.  The  patron  of  the  Georgia  churches  in  Ger- 
many, the  Reverend  Mr.  Urlsperger,  sent  over  an  additional 
minister  in  1752,  making  an  excellent  choice  in  the  Re- 
verend Christian  Rabenhorst.  With  him  came  a  colony  of 
immiofrants  from  Wiirtembers:,  whom  Bolzius  was  more  in- 
clined  to  welcome  than  a  third  minister.  He  very  soon  con- 

1  "  Many  mulberry  trees  are  still  standing  at  Ebenezer,  wbicb  no  doubt 
have  sprung  from  the  original  stock  ;  many  of  the  descendants  of  the  Salz- 
burgers continue  to  raise  silk,  which  they  manufacture  into  fishing-lines  and 
sell  very  readily  in  Savannah."  Strobel,  p.  130.  (Published  1855.) 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   GEORGIA  245 

fessed  his  error,  however,  when  his  strength  began  to  show 
signs  of  dechning,  and  the  three  pastors  lived  in  great  har- 
mony for  twelve  succeeding  years.  Mr.  Rabenhorst  brought 
with  him  a  capital  of  six  hundred  and  forty-nine  pounds, 
sixteen  shillings  and  fivepence,  from  the  interest  of  which 
he  was  to  derive  his  support.  The  trust  funds  and  the  mill 
properties  in  which  they  were  invested  were  in  1757  given 
over  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bolzius  to  his  brother-in-law, 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Lembke,  the  former  fearing  his  advanc- 
ing age  and  wishing  to  introduce  his  colleague  into 
the  routine  connected  with  the  management  of  the  proper- 
ties. Ten  years  after,  or  two  years  after  the  death  of  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Bolzius,  Pastor  Lembke  acted  in  accord- 
ance with  his  predecessor's  example,  assigning  the  trust 
to  Rabenhorst.  The  most  notable  event  under  the  Re- 
verend Mr.  Lembke's  administration  was  the  building  of 
Jerusalem  Church,  a  brick  structure  erected  at  Ebenezer 
in  1767.^ 

The  successor  of  Lembke,  Christopher  F.  Triebner, 
proved  to  be  not  well  selected ;  a  young  man  of  "  fine  tal- 
ents, but  very  impetuous  in  his  character,  and  possessed 
of  a  very  small  share  of  the  humility  and  piety  which 
characterized  his  predecessors."  ^  A  church  quarrel  arose, 
which,  like  that  in  New  Jersey,^  was  finally  settled  by  the 
patriarch  of  the  Lutheran  church,  the  Reverend  H.  M. 
Muhlenberg.  The  latter  arrived  at  Ebenezer  in  November, 
1774,  and  at  once  proceeded  with  characteristic  tact  and 
wisdom.  He  called  on  each  of  the  pastors  personally,  and 
after  a  friendly  interview  requested  each  to  furnish  in 
writing  a  statement  of  his  grievances.  Mr.  Rabenhorst,  the 
senior  pastor,  complained  mainly  of  the  charges  and  in- 

*  A  picture  of  the  church  is  found  in  Strobel,  after  p.  148. 

2  Strobel,  p.  151.  3  Cf.  Chapter  iv,  pp.  156-158. 


246  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

triofues  of  his  brother  in  office.  Mr.  Triebner  made  accu- 
sations  of  a  more  bitter  kind,  assailing  the  ability  and 
character  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Rabenhorst.  Miihlenberw' 
decided  virtually  in  favor  of  Rabenhorst,  of  whom  he 
wrote  in  his  diary,  "  most  heartily  would  I  have  regarded 
myself  as  fortunate,  if  the  Lord  had  lent  us  in  Pennsyl- 
vania a  laborer  like  Mr.  Rabenhorst,  and  I  would  rejoice 
even  in  my  last  days  to  be  the  adjunct  of  such  a  man. 
.  .  .  Although  he  was  most  grossly  wronged  he  was  the 
first  to  extend  his  hand  to  the  offender."  ^  The  result  of 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Muhlenberg's  arbitration  was  to  exon- 
erate Mr.  Rabenhorst  completely  from  all  charges,  to  place 
him  at  the  head  of  the  parish  of  St.  Matthew,  and  Mr. 
Triebner  in  a  more  subordinate  position,  with  the  latter's 
prerogatives  very  narrowly  defined. 

The  restoration  of  peace  in  the  church  was  not  the  only 
service  of  the  Lutheran  patriarch.  He  took  an  inventory 
of  the  properties  of  the  church,"  and  examined  carefully 
the  deeds  and  grants.  He  found  that  the  property  had 
not  been  ceded  definitely  to  the  Lutheran  church,  but 
that  under  the  conditions  of  the  deed  the  established 
church  of  the  colony  (which  was  the  Church  of  England) 
might  claim  the  property.  Muhlenberg  succeeded  in  hav- 
ing: the  matter  rectified  in  the  courts  of  Savannah.  He 
preached  in  all  five  churches.  Savannah,  Jerusalem,  Beth- 
any, Goshen,  and  Zion,  and  drew  up  a  discipline  of  church 
government  and  conduct,  which  was  signed  by  one  hun- 
dred and    twenty-four  male  members  of    the  Jerusalem 

^  Of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Triebner  Muhlenberg  said  :  "  A  young  man  who^ 
although  well-meaning  and  gifted,  was  nevertheless  inexperienced,  passion- 
ate, and  a  dangerous  novice." 

'  Strobel,  pp.  190-191,  gives  eight  items  which  made  up  the  valuable 
property  of  the  church.  He  estimates  that  the  value  could  not  have  been  less 
than  twenty  thousand  dollars. 


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SETTLEMENTS   IN   GEORGIA  247 

Church/  Muhlenberg  remained  in  Georgia  about  four 
months  to  complete  his  important  work  in  behalf  of  the 
parish  of  St.  Matthew. 

The  Reverend  Mr.  Triebner  was  an  ardent  Tory  during 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  invited  the  British,  after 
they  had  captured  Savannah,  to  take  possession  of  Eben- 
ezer,  which  lay  on  the  turnpike  between  Savannah  and 
Augusta.  Triebner  probably  carried  a  portion  of  his  small 
congregation  with  him,  but  by  far  the  majority  of  the 
Salzburgers  joined  the  patriotic  cause  and  were  vigorous 
supporters  of  the  party  that  advocated  independence.  This 
will  receive  comment  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  town  of  Ebenezer,  at  about  the  period  of  Muhlen- 
berg's visit  (1774-75),  had  attained  the  height  of  its  im- 
portance. The  population  numbered  about  five  hundred, 
live  intercourse  was  maintained  with  Savannah  and  other 
towns,  an  export  and  import  trade  of  limited  extent  was 
carried  on  with  Europe,  silk  being  exported  to  Europe  and 
drugs  and  medical  supplies  being  received  from  Germany. 
The  population  increased  rapidly  throughout  the  parish, 
spreading  westward  to  the  Ogeechee  River,  and  remain- 
ing most  numerous  along  the  Savannah  River  between 
Savannah  and  Augusta. 

The  German  settlements  of  the  eighteenth  century  in 
New  England  were  not  numerous,  yet  their  history,  though 
not  of  the  same  importance  as  elsewhere,  is  nevertheless 
of  interest.  The  beginnings  of  German  colonies  in  New 
England  are  associated  with  the  name  of  Waldo.  Jona- 
than Waldo,  of  Swedish  Pomeranian  nobility,  came  to 

'  Cf.  Strobel,  p.  180,  where  their  names  are  given.  For  a  list  of  the  names 
of  the  principal  residents  of  Ebenezer  in  1741  (i.  e.,  thirty  years  earlier,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  colony's  history),  see  Strobel,  p.  112, 


248  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Boston  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  as  the 
agent  of  a  Hamburg  house.  He  rose  to  be  one  of  the 
leading  merchants  of  the  city,  and  his  business  often  took 
him  to  Germany  and  England.  On  one  of  these  trips  a 
son,  Samuel  Waldo/  was  born  in  London.  Samuel  Waldo 
when  a  young  man  was  sent  to  Harvard  College,  and 
afterwards  to  Germany,  to  complete  his  education.  Like 
Peter  Muhlenberg,  a  generation  later,  he  was  fascinated  by 
the  soldier's  career,  and  entered  the  Hanoverian  service. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  elector's  body-guard  when  the  lat- 
ter ascended  the  English  throne  as  George  I,  and  advanced 
to  the  rank  of  major  in  the  English  service,  remaining  in 
London  until  1724,  when  his  father's  death  called  him  to 
Boston  to  take  charge  of  the  paternal  estate.  On  his  depart- 
ure from  England  he  was  made  a  colonel  of  militia  of  Mass- 
achusetts Bay,  and,  residing  in  Boston,  he  soon  gained  the 
repute  of  energy  and  enterprise  in  business  affairs. 

Samuel  Waldo  became  interested  in  a  land  speculation 
within  the  present  state  of  Maine,  which  then  was  a  part  of 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts.  Ten  proprietors  —  to  whom 
later  twenty  associates  were  added  —  purchased  lands  on 
the  Muscongus  River,  a  tract  situated  in  the  present  coun- 
ties of  Knox,  Lincoln,  and  Waldo  (Maine).  They  could 
not  get  a  clear  title  from  the  crown,  and  therefore  commis- 
sioned Waldo,  jjersona  grata  at  St.  James's,  to  represent 
their  interests  in  London.  By  "  untiring  application  at 
court "  Waldo  was  successful  in  adjusting  the  case,  and 
as  a  reward  the  Thirty  Proprietors  surrendered  to  him 
one  half  of  the  Muscongus  Patent.^ 

*  His  motlier  was  also  German.  See  Collections  of  the  Maine  Historical 
Society,  series  1,  vol.  ix,  p.  75,  "General  Samuel  Waldo,"  by  Joseph 
Williamson.  Cf.  also,  Eaton's  Annals  of  Warren,  p.  109,  and  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  7-9. 

^  Cf.  Collections  of  Maine  Historical  Society,  series  1,  vol.  vi,  pp.  321-322. 


SETTLEMENTS   IN  NEW   ENGLAND        249 

Waldo  had  his  land  surveyed  in  1732,  and  prepared 
to  colonize  it  at  once.  The  first  settlement  was  made  in 
1736,  principally  by  Scotch-Irishmen  on  St.  George's 
River,  but  he  wished  to  secure  a  larger  agricultural  popu- 
lation. In  1738  the  enterprising  merchant  went  to  Ger- 
many to  secure  colonists.  Circulars  ^  were  distributed  and 
arrangements  made  for  transportation.  In  1740  he  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  forty  German  families  from  Bruns- 
wick and  Saxony  to  accept  his  imposing  offers  to  settle  in 
the  Broad  Bay  district  of  Maine.^  They  founded  Waldo- 
borough  (Waldoburg)  on  both  sides  of  the  Medomak  River, 
but  led  a  wretched  existence  until  larger  numbers  of  Ger- 
man settlers  joined  them.  They  did  not  understand  the  art 
of  fishing,  which  might  have  saved  many  of  them,  and  they 
complained  much  of  disappointment  in  their  expectations  ; 
for  even  if  the  promises  were  "  kept  to  the  ear,  they 
were  broken  to  the  hope."  ^ 

Waldo  found  his  business  affairs  too  engrossing  to  allow 
him  much  time  for  the  colonists.  He  therefore  employed 
an  agent  named  Sebastian  Zauberbiihler  (Zuberbiihler), 
who  had    had  some  experience   in    other   colonies.  The 

1  A  book  was  printed  subsequently  describing  the  new  land,  entitled:  Kurtze 
Beschreihung  derer  Landtschnfft  Massachusetts-Bay,  in  Neu  Engellandt.  Ab- 
sonderlich  des  Landstrichs  an  der  Breyten  Bay,  so  dem  Koniglichen  Britischen 
Obersten,  Samuel  Waldo,  Erbherrn  des  Breyten  Bay,  zugehorig,  sampt  denen 
Hauptbedingungen  nach  welchen  sich  fremde  Protestanten  daselbsten  ansiedeln 
mogen.   Speyer,  1741.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  p.  10. 

^  The  most  valuable  contribution  to  tbe  history  of  the  Germans  in  Maine 
has  been  made  by  H.  A.  Rattermann,  who  visited  the  sites  of  the  old  colonies 
and  studied  their  documentary  history ;  published  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vols, 
xiv,  XV,  and  xvi  :  "  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Elements  im  Staate  Maine,  deren 
Ursprung,  Entwickelung  u.  Verfall,  vom  Jahre  1739  bis  zur  Gegeuwart." 
The  writer  is  deeply  indebted  also,  for  suggestions  and  corrections,  to  the 
Reverend  Henry  O.  Thayer,  A.M.,  former  secretary  of  the  Maine  Historical 
Society  and  author  of  The  Sagadahoc  Colony,  to  whom  the  manuscript  was 
submitted  for  revision. 

^  Eaton,  Annals  of  Warren,  p.  62. 


250  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

agent  succeeded  in  inducing  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 
to  one  hundred  and  sixty  Germans,  all  that  remained  after 
exasperating  and  costly  delays,  to  cross  the  Atlantic  with 
him  in  August,  1742,  with  the  object  of  settling  on  Waldo's 
land  in  Maine.  They  were  well  received  at  Marblehead 
near  Boston,  and  Waldo  accompanied  them  to  the  Scotch- 
Irish  settlement  on  St.  George's  River.  Then  they  sailed 
into  the  mouth  of  the  Medomak  River,  where,  on  the  bay- 
like harbor  called  Broad  Bay,  a  few  log  huts  or  sheds 
marked  the  site  of  their  new  homes.  Zauberbiihler  remained 
with  them  until  December,  to  help  them  in  the  selection 
of  their  lands,  then  went  to  Boston  never  to  be  seen 
by  them  again. ^  Waldoborough  ^  (Waldoburg)  remained 
the  name  by  which  the  settlement  was  known.  School- 
master John  Ulmer  acted  as  preacher  and  faithful  leader 
of  the  colonists.  The  time  of  year  for  their  arrival  was 
badly  chosen,  for,  though  they  saw  the  Maine  forests 
in  all  the  beauty  of  their  autumnal  foliage,  and  rejoiced  in 
the  experience  of  an  Indian  summer,  a  severe  winter  stood 
before  them,  destined  to  bring  untold  suffering.  They  could 
not  sow  until  spring,  and  supplies,  long  aw^aited,  had  to 
be  sent  from  Boston.  Log  huts  were  rudely  constructed 
without  windows  or  chimneys ;  unfamiliar  hardships  had 
to  be  endured  before  the  settlement  could  become  habit- 
able. The  few  German  colonists  already  located  there 
could  not  give  much  assistance,  needing  help  themselves  and 
suffering-  from  the  fevers  so  common  among  first  settlers. 

*  Sebastian  Zauberbiililer  (in  Massachusetts  official  documents  spelt  Su- 
berbuhler  and  Zouberbuhler)  was  of  Swiss  birth,  and  probably  came  over 
with  John  Pury,  founder  of  Purysburg,  in  1732.  The  latter's  example  in- 
spired him  to  similar  ventures.  After  leaving  Maine,  Zauberbiihler  re- 
appeared in  Nova  Scotia  as  magistrate  of  Lunenburg.  He  should  not  be 
confounded  with  the  Reverend  Bartholomew  Zauberbiihler  of  Orangeburg, 
South  Carolina. 

2  The  present  spelling  is  Waldoboro. 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   NEW   ENGLAND         251 

When  the  spring  came,  the  colonists  were  in  such  straits 
that  it  was  impossible  for  them  either  to  better  their  con- 
dition or  migrate.  They  therefore  petitioned  Governor 
Shirley  and  the  assembly  of  Massachusetts,  setting  forth 
their  sufferings  and  begging  that  they  be  taken  out  of  the 
country  and  be  "  emjDloyed  in  such  business  as  they  are 
capable  of  for  the  support  of  themselves,  their  wives  and 
children."  '  The  General  Court  Assembled  had  the  matter 
investigated,  and  their  commission  reported  that  the  com- 
plainants (Dr.  Kast  in  behalf  of  himself  and  his  Palatine 
brethren)  had  suffered  greatly,  and  that,  if  not  soon  re- 
lieved, they  might  "  stand  in  need  of  the  Compassion  of 
this  Government."  But  since  Waldo  was  absent  from  Bos- 
ton, a  settlement  of  the  matter  was  deferred  until  the  next 
meeting  of  the  court.  The  committee  of  investigation  then 
reported  that  each  party  had  violated  the  contract,  the 
Palatines  in  not  paying  the  passage-money,  Zauberbiihler 
in  not  providing  shipping  in  due  time,  Waldo  in  not  pay- 
ing the  officers'  wages,  etc. ;  and  recommended  that  some 
suitable  person  or  persons  be  appointed  to  settle  their  ac- 
counts, and  that  "  a  sum  of  money  be  granted  to  be  laid  out 
in  provisions  and  clothing  to  help  them  (the  Palatines)  thro' 
the  winter."  The  report  was  read  before  the  House  and 
Council  September  17,  1743,  but  was  voted  down,  and 
the  colonists  were  left  to  shift  for  themselves.  The  second 
winter  must  have  been  one  of  even  greater  trials,  since 
the  supplies  of  Waldo  failed  them  after  October,  his  con- 
tract requiring  him  to  serve  them  only  the  first  winter. 
But  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  their  troubles,  and  it 
was  shown  here  even  more  than  elsewhere  that  the  lot  of 
early  colonists  was  not  a  happy  one. 

1  May  25,  1743.  See  Massachusetts  Records  (MS.),  vol.  15  A,  pp.  33  ff. 
Printed  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  95-98  (Rattermanii). 


252  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

In  the  following  year  (1744)  war  broke  out  between 
France  and  England,  which  drew  into  its  vortex  the  col- 
onies of  the  Western  Hemisphere  and  threatened  also  the 
insecure  foundations  of  the  German  settlement  in  Maine. 
In  the  spring  of  1745  an  expedition  was  made  against  the 
French  fort,  Louisbourg,  the  "  Gibraltar  of  America,"  on 
Cape  Breton  Island,  Nova  Scotia.  The  force  was  under 
the  command  of  William  Pepperell.  Samuel  Waldo,  brig- 
adier-general, was  third  in  command  of  the  New  England 
forces,  and  rendered  conspicuous  service.^  A  large  German 
contingent  was  enlisted  under  the  captaincy  of  Johannes 
Ulmer,  "  priest,  prince,  and  military  commander."  ^  Those 
of  Waldoboro  who  did  not  accompany  the  expedition  went 
for  protection  to  the  forts  on  the  Pemaquid  and  St. 
George's  rivers,  and  after  the  successful  termination  of 
the  campaign  returned  to  their  settlements. 

The  Indians,  heretofore  peaceable,  had  become  dissatis- 
fied because  of  the  increase  in  the  number  of  colonists 
and  their  taking  possession  of  territory  above  the  Falls 
of  St.  George.  For  a  time  they  were  bought  off  with  pre- 
sents, and  it  seemed  as  if  the  German  settlements,  friendly 
to  the  red  men,  would  be  spared.  But  the  quiet  proved 
to  be  only  the  lull  before  the  storm.  The  new  war  had 
changed  conditions  entirely,  and  the  Indians  were  plan- 
ning the  extermination  of  the  white  settlers.  On  the 
morning  of  the  twenty-first  of  May,  1746,  they  surprised 
the  peaceful  settlement  of  Waldoboro  and  destroyed  it 
entirely,  only  a  few  of  the  colonists  escaping,  making 
their  way  to  neighboring  blockhouse  forts  or  to  Louis- 
bourg, where  they  remained  until  the  end  of  the  war.  In 
I  spite  of  this  terrible  setback,  the  survivors  returned  in 

^  Collections,  Maine  Historical  Society,  series  1,  vol.  ix,  p.  82. 
2  Eaton's  Warren,  p.  175. 


SETTLEMENTS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND        253 

1748,  after  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  order  to  build  / 
up  their  village  again.  Waldo  made  strenuous  efforts  to 
get  new  colonists.  He  succeeded  in  bringing  about  twenty 
or  thirty  families  of  German  immigrants  from  Philadel- 
phia, and  thus  infused  new  life  into  Waldoboro.  Grist-mills 
and  saw-mills  were  erected,  and  soon  also  a  church  spire 
pointed  skyward  to  mark  the  progress  of  the  colony. 

About  the  same  time  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
became  cognizant  of  the  advantages  which  other  colonies, 
particularly  Pennsylvania,  had  gained  through  German 
immigration.  When  Joseph  Crellius  ^  in  1750  presented 
a  memorial  to  the"  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  pro- 
posing to  bring  over  German  Protestants,  providing  they 
could  be  given  sufficient  inducements,  Lieutenant-Governor 
Spencer  Phips  used  his  influence  in  support  of  the  plan, 
urging  that  "  they  [the  Protestants]  would  introduce 
many  useful  manufactures  and  arts."  ^  In  1749  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  appropriated  four  town- 
ships for  the  accommodation  of  foreign  Protestants,  two 
in  the  eastern  and  two  in  the  western  part  of  the  province. 
Two  of  the  townships  were  located  in  the  extreme  north- 
western part,  near  Fort  Massachusetts,  west  of  the  Con- 
necticut River,  in  what  is  now  Franklin  County,  and 
extending  into  Vermont.  The  area  included  the  present 

^  Crellius  (or  Crell,  born  in  Franconia)  came  from  Philadelphia,  where 
for  a  time  he  had  published  the  second  German  newspaper  in  America,  Das 
hochdeutsche  Pennsylvania  Journal  (1743),  and  translated  into  German 
Benjamin  Franklin's  Plain  Truth.  Through  his  journalistic  work  he  prob- 
ably became  acquainted  with  the  publishing  house  of  Luther  in  Frankfort- 
on-the-Main.  He  was  also  interested  in  immigration  schemes,  and  in  1748 
induced  a  shipload  of  immigrants,  that  he  had  conducted  to  Philadelphia,  to 
accept  Waldo's  offers  to  settle  in  Maine.  Seeing  great  profits  in  the  venture, 
he  then  decided  to  deal  directly  with  the  Massachusetts  government,  and 
offered  his  services.  See  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  142  ff. 

'  Williamson,  History  of  Maine,  vol.  ii,  p.  285. 


254  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

towns  of  Adamsville,  Beaver  Meadow,  Bernardstown, 
Coleraine,  Leyden,  West  Northfield,  and  Shattuekville. 
Adamsdorf,  Bernardsdorf,  and  Leyden  are  names  that 
date  back  to  the  German  settlements. 

The  other  two  townships  were  to  be  located  far  east 
(In  the  extreme  western  part  of  Maine,  the  present  Cum- 
berland County),  from  "  Sebago  Pond  to  the  head  of 
Benirck."  Crellius  was  to  be  granted  a  reserve  of  two 
hundred  acres  in  each  township,  provided  he  imported 
and  settled  one  hundred  and  twenty  Protestants  in  each 
township  within  three  years/  He  was  not  able  to  carry 
out  the  conditions,  and  therefore  the  grants  were  revoked, 
but  he  succeeded  in  bringfino'  over  a  number  of  families 
who  settled  in  various  localities.  None  went  to  the  Sebao-o 
Lake  region,  and  not  until  after  three  years  had  elapsed 
did  some  settle  around  Fort  Massachusetts.  It  is  probable 
that  Crellius  had  previously  sold  his  claims  in  Maine  to 
the  Plymouth  Company  ("  The  Company  of  the  Kenne- 
bec Purchase"). 

Crellius,  in  his  numerous  advertisements,  not  only  de- 
clared himself  to  be  the  authorized  agent  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony,  but  also  implied  that  the  British 
government  was  supporting  his  ventures.  This  called  out 
a  denial,  and  antagonized  a  host  of  other  agents,  interested 
in  the  immigrations  to  Pennsylvania,  Carolina,  and  Nova 
Scotia.  Mutual  criminations  and  recriminations  resulted, 
which  could  not  but  discredit  all  parties  and  open  the 
eyes  of  the  rulers  of  German  principalities  to  the  nefarious 
practices  of  the  "  newlanders."  To  Crellius  belongs  the 
credit  of  advocating  an  act  passed  by  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives  in  1750,  the  first  of  its  kind, 

1  Massachusetts  Records  (MS.),  vol.  15  A,  pp.  49-51 ;  January  25,  1749. 
Printed  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  p.  177  (Rattermann). 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   NEW   ENGLAND         255 

"  regulating  the  Importation  of  German  and  other  Pas- 
sengers," preventing  crowding  and  other  abuses.^  Crellius 
thought  to  gain  an  advantage  thereby,  but  the  result  was 
that  the  ship-companies,  their  jDrofits  being  interfered  with, 
refused  to  let  their  vessels  go  to  the  Massachusetts  colony. 
A  most  valiant  battle  for  reform  was  fought  by  Hofrat 
Heinrich  Ehrenfried  Luther,  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
who  sought  to  legitimize  German  emigration  by  getting 
the  several  American  colonial  governments  to  control  the 
transportation  and  settlement  of  colonists,  and  to  assume 
responsibility  for  their  safety.^  Thereby  the  emigrants 
would  have  been  rescued  from  the  clutch  of  the  new- 
landers  and  ship-companies.  The  latter  saw  their  danger, 
and  fought  successfully  against  the  ruin  of  their  profitable 
trade.  Luther  for  some  time  supported  Crellius,  until  the 
latter  proved  to  be  engaged  in  the  emigrant  traffic  solely 
for  his  own  pecuniary  advantage,  no  better  than  other 
newlanders.^ 

Crellius  succeeded  by  the  spring  of  1751,  with  the  aid 
of  Luther,  in  getting  together  twenty  or  thirty  families  / 
in  two  transports  and  taking  them  down  the  Rhine  to/ 
Rotterdam.  There  and  in  London  his  enemies  did  all  they/ 
could  to  prevent  his  procuring  ships,  but  he  finally  sue/ 
ceeded,  after  many  delays,  in  carrying  his  people  across 
the  Atlantic.  They  stopped  two  weeks  in  Boston,  and  in 
December,  1757,  some  proceeded  on  the  frigate  of  the 
province  to  new  homes  on  the  Kennebec  River.  On  the 
left  bank  of  the  river,  about  twenty  miles  from  its  mouth, 
they  founded  Frankfort  (now  Dresden).  Their  land  lay 

1  Massachusetts  Records  (MS.),  vol.  15  A,  pp.  52-55.  Printed  in  Der 
deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  177-179  (Rattermann). 

^  See,  e.  g.,  the  letter  of  Luther  to  Lieutenant-Governor  Phips  of  Massa- 
chusetts, MS.  Records,  pp.  67-80  ;  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  179-187. 

*  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  428^29. 


u   / 


3i3 


256  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

twelve  to  fifteen  miles  directly  west  of  Waldoboro,  having 
for  its  eastern  border  the  Sheepscott  River,  and  being  a 
toart  of  the  territory  held  by  the  Plymouth  Company.  A 
/large  number  of  the  settlers  of  Frankfort  were  from 
( the  borderland  of  Germany  and  France,  and  French  Pro- 
testants were  accordingly  numerous  among  the  original 
settlers.  The  settlement,  though  German  in  name,  seems 
not  to  have  been  purely  German  like  Waldoboro/ 
I  A  portion  of  the  German  colonists  whom  Crellius 
brouofht  over,  in  1753  located  on  the  western  frontier  of 
Massachusetts,  near  Fort  Massachusetts.  The  later  date 
is  explained  by  their  coming  over  as  redemptioners,  there- 
fore being  obliged  to  serve  several  years  to  pay  off  the 
cost  of  their  transportation.  When  this  period  was  over, 
they  settled  in  the  region  described  above,  and  others 
following  them,  they  founded  several  villages,  among  them 
Leydensdorf,  to  commemorate  the  trials  of  their  passage 
over  the  sea  and  their  servitude  on  land.^ 

Nova  Scotia  had  received  a  large  number  of  German 
immigrants  through  the  activity  of  John  Dick  of  Rotter- 
dam and  his  sub-agent  Koliler  in  Frankfort.  They  suc- 
ceeded in  deflecting  a  strong  current  of  German  settlers 
who  would  otherwise  have  gone  to  Pennsylvania  and 
Carolina.  Almost  an  entire  brigade  of  Brunswick-Lune- 
burg  troops,  who  had  come  to  America  in  the  English 
service,  settled  in  Nova  Scotia  on  government  invitation 
and  liberal  offers  of  land.^    Lunenburg  (in  the  earliest 

*  Cf.  Collections  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society,  series  1,  vol.  viii,  pp. 
213,  214  (William  Gould);  also  ibid.,  series  2,  vol.  i,  pp.  313  £F.  and  vol.  iii, 
pp.  351  fE.  (Charles  P.  Allen). 

^  Another  explanation  of  the  name  Leydensdorf  or  Leyden  would  be  that 
there  were  some  Dutch  settlers  among  them,  who  named  the  town  after  the 
Dutch  city  of  Leyden. 

^  The  plan  of  offering  land  in  Nova  Scotia  to  soldiers  was  originated  by 
Lord  Halifax,  in  1749.  See  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  148-149  (Rat- 
termaun). 


SETTLEMENTS   IN  NEW   ENGLAND        257 

church  records  appearing  with  the  German  spelling,  Lline- 
burg),  the  second  oldest  county  of  Nova  Scotia,  bordering 
on  Halifax  (the  oldest),  was  settled  by  them  and  many 
shiploads  of  Germans  and  "foreign  Protestants."  The  first 
group,  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  persons,  embarked  at 
Rotterdam  in  the  good  ship  A7i7ie,  John  Spurrier,  master, 
and  arrived  at  Halifax  in  1750.  Between  this  first  date 
and  1753  large  accessions  were  brought  over  in  the  Pearl, 
Gale,  Sally,  Betty,  Murdoch,  Swan,  and  other  ships, 
bringing  the  total  number  of  immigrants  to  1615,^  mainly 
Germans,  with  a  sprinkling  of  French  and  Scotch  Protest- 
ants. Prominent  men  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  town  of 
Lunenburg  were  the  Germans  Leonard  Christoph  Rudolf 
(judge  and  assemblyman),  Dettlieb  Christoph  Jessen  (just- 
ice of  the  peace),  Sebastian  Zouberbiihler  (magistrate),^ 
Captain  John  Rouse  (whose  name  lives  in  Rouse's  Buckel, 
the  "Plymouth  Rock  of  Lunenburg"),  and  Caspar  Wol- 
lenhaupt  (whose  name  appears  as  a  signer  of  the  mort- 
gage upon  the  town  of  Lunenburg  exacted  by  American 
privateersmen,  when  they  hrand-schatzed  the  town  in 
1782).^  In  the  list  of  land  grants  of  1761  more  than  nine 
tenths  of  about  two  hundred  names  appear  to  be  German.^ 
A  contemporary  local  historian  ^  estimates  that  the  German 

'  M.  B.  Des  Brisay,  History  of  the  County  of  Lunenburg,  p.  23.  (Toronto, 
1895.) 

^  He  had  been  Waldo's  first  agent.  When  Zouberbiihler  died,  in  1773,  he 
seems  to  have  been  quite  wealthy.  His  estate  and  the  effects  of  his  daughter, 
on  her  death,  are  inventoried  in  Des  Brisay,  pp.  57-59. 

5  Cf .  Agnes  Creighton  :  «'  Relics  of  the  History  of  Lunenburg  "  (paper  read 
before  the  Canadian  Historical  Society) ;  also  by  the  same  author  :  "  A  Plea 
for  Remembrance,"  Acadiensk,  vol.  vii,  no.  1,  January,  1907  (containing 
copies  of  inscriptions  on  tombstones  of  old  Lunenburg  settlers,  church  re- 
cords, etc.). 

*  They  are  published  in  Des  Brisay,  pp.  69-72. 

5  The  author  of  "  Relics  of  the  History  of  Lunenburg,"  to  whom  and  to 
Professor  Archibald  MacMechan  of  Dalhousie  College,  Nova  Scotia,  I  am 
deeply  indebted  for  suggestions,  and  answers  to  my  queries. 


258  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

element  of  the  present  day  in  Lunenburg  County  is  about 
one  half,  in  the  city  of  Halifax  about  one  tenth  of  the 
total  population.  The  latter  is  a  conservative  estimate 
and  perhaps  disregards  the  fact  that  a  large  number  of 
Germans  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  early  settlement 
of  Halifax.  In  1753  the  immigration  to  Nova  Scotia  was 
checked  by  the  English  government,  after  an  investigation 
which  showed  that  more  immigrants  had  been  sent  there 
than  the  country  could  support,  and  that  therefore  unde- 
sirable conditions  of  poverty  and  disease  resulted,  giving 
good  cause  for  complaint  on  the  part  of  the  colonists. 
The  testimony  of  greatest  influence  was  that  given  by 
Colonel  Edward  Cornwallis,  up  to  that  time  governor  of 
the  province. 

;  The  checking  of  the  immigration  to  Nova  Scotia  was 
advantageous  for  the  New  England  settlements.  Waldo 
now  strained  his  efforts  to  make  the  best  of  the  oppor- 
tunity, advertising  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Germany.' 
Exactly  how  far  he  was  successful,  we  do  not  know.  He 
went  to  Germany  in  person,  accompanied  by  his  son.  The 
father  was  received  as  a  distinguished  man  at  many  of  the 
small  German  courts,  and  from  some  of  them  he  gained 
permission  to  advertise  for  immigrants.  In  other  princi- 
palities such  privileges  were  withdrawn  by  legal  action, 
the  result,  perhaps,  of  the  controversies  among  the  new- 
landers.  Waldo  left  his  son  in  charge  of  an  immigration 
bureau  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  where  he  lived  at  the 
house  of  Luther.  Count  Nassau  was  one  who  favored  the 
plans  of  Waldo  and  even  appointed  an  agent,  Karl  Leist- 
ner,  who  should  accompany  the  colonists  to  America  and 
see  to  their  wants.  Leistner,  reported  to  be  a  man  of  edu- 

'  Waldo's  circular  is  published  in  an  English  translation  :   Collections  of 
the  Maine  Historical  Society,  series  1,  vol.  vi,  pp.  325-332. 


SETTLEMENTS   IN   NEW   ENGLAND         259 

cation,  gathered  together  about  sixty  families  in  the  moun- 
tainous districts  of  the  Taunus,  and  brought  them  to  the 
Broad  Bay  settlements.  This  was  in  all  probability  a  later 
group  than  that  reported  by  the  "  Annals  of  Warren  " 
(1753)  ^  to  have  been  housed  in  a  shed  unfit  for  habitation, 
many  freezing  to  death,  or  dying  of  diseases  induced  by 
privations,  many  of  the  newcomers  being  "  fain  to  work 
for  a  quart  of  buttermilk  a  day,"  or  "  considered  it  a  boon 
when  they  could  gain  a  quart  of  meal  for  a  day's  labor." 
Certainly  under  Leistner's  magistracy  conditions  changed, 
and  many  families  of  local  distinction  sprang  from  the 
immigration  of  1753.  Joseph  Ludwig  was  a  prosperous 
agriculturist,  Peter  Miihler  (Miller)  built  a  house  "  distin- 
guished among  its  neighbors,"  and  George  Varner  (Wer- 
ner) built  a  grist-mill  partly  in  his  own,  partly  in  Waldo's 
interest.^  A  meeting-house  was  built  in  1760,  dedicated 
in  1763  (Eaton).  A  church  fifty  by  seventy  feet,  with  a 
gallery,  probably  dating  from  1790,  still  stands  in  good 
preservation,  and  a  commemorative  service  is  held  in  it 
every  summer  (Thayer). 

As  a  result  of  natural  growth  and  the  work  of  recruit- 
ing colonists  abroad,  the  settlements  in  Maine,  at  Broad 
Bay  and  on  the  Kennebec,  spread  over  a  wider  area,  the 
village  later  known  as  Bremen  being  an  offshoot  of  Wal- 
doboro,  and  Fort  Frankfort  (also  called  Fort  Shirley) 
spreading  over  the  settlement  Dresden  and  later  taking 
that  name.^  After  the  death  of  Waldo  the  rights  of  the 
settlers  on  his  own  estate  (not  the  claims  of  the  colonists 
of  Frankfort)  and  on  the  lower  Kennebec  became  a  mat- 
ter of  dispute.  About  fifty  to  sixty  families  in  the  year 

1  See  Eaton's  Annals  of  Warren,  p.  82. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  83. 

3  The  fact  that  the  final  name,  adopted  in  1794,  was  Dresden,  again  seems 
to  indicate  a  strong  German  population. 


260  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

1763  bought  their  land  a  second  time  from  the  supposed 
rightful  owners  ;  then  it  was  found  that  still  another  party 
had  older  claims.  Wearied  of  these  experiences,  a  number 
of  the  German  colonists  sold  their  land  and  claims  at  a 
low  figure,  about  1770-73,  and  migrated  to  the  settle- 
ments of  their  countrymen  in  the  Orangeburg  district, 
South  Carolina,  whence  had  come  enthusiastic  reports. 
Some  returned  subsequently,  making  a  settlement  with 

the  proprietors,  and  "  were  received  with  open  hearts  and 

"  1 
arms. 

One  other  settlement  in  Massachusetts,  little  known, 
but  of  much  interest,  was  caused  indirectly  by  the  others. 
Germans  who  were  destined  for  the  Massachusetts  colonies, 
in  the  east  or  west,  frequently  remained  in  Boston,  serving 
their  time  as  redemptioners,  or  tarrying  for  good  reasons 
before  selecting  a  permanent  abode.  In  this  way,  quite  a 
number  had  in  course  of  time  settled  down  as  gardeners 
or  truck-farmers  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston.  There 
were  some  merchants  also,  commonly  "North  Germans  from 
Hamburg,  who  remained  in  or  near  Boston,  and  like  the 
farmers  were  industrious,  thrifty  people,  who  gained  the 
respect  of  the  English  population.  The  good  impression 
the  German  settlers  had  made  matured  a  plan  in  the  minds 
of  some  Boston  promoters,  to  establish  a  German  town  near 
Boston ;  others  interested  were  Waldo  and  the  Kennebec 
proprietors,  who  welcomed  a  station  from  which  they  might 
draw  settlers  for  their  colonies.  The  result  was  the  founda- 
tion of  (New)  Germantown  about  ten  miles  south  of  Bos- 
ton (in  the  present  neighborhood  of  Braintree,  Quincy). 
On  August  21,  1750,  the  ship  Thomas  brought  a  great 

^  Collections  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society,  series  1,  vol.  v,  pp.  403-406, 
"  Germans  in  Waldoborough,"  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Starman.  He  estimates 
that  about  fifteen  hundred  German  immigrants  settled  at  Broad  Bay  (p. 
404).  He  gives  an  account  also  of  the  churches  and  ministers  of  Waldoboro. 


SETTLEMENTS   IN  NEW   ENGLAND        261 

number  of  Germans  to  settle  in  New  Germantown.*  Some 
immigrants  arrived  in  1757,  and  twelve  families  engaged 
to  go  to  the  Germantown  glassworks,  for  the  settlement 
distinguished  itself  by  establishing  various  manufactures. 
Undoubtedly  some  of  the  families  brought  over  by  Crel- 
lius,  in  1751,  settled  there,  and  it  was  reported  that  in  the 
following  year  over  one  hundred  houses  had  been  built.^ 
Benjamin  Franklin,  then  a  printer  of  Philadelphia,  bought 
eight  building  lots  in  the  village,  in  1751,  proving  that 
he  had  considerable  faith  in  the  future  of  New  German- 
town.^  In  1757  twenty  names  represent  those  liable  to 
military  duty,  and  in  many  ways  Germantown  seemed  a 
rival  of  Waldoboro.  But  by  1760  the  manufacturing  en- 
terprises of  Germantown  seem  to  have  declined  or  failed, 
the  colony  broke  up,  and  a  large  j^art  went  to  the  Broad 
Bay  settlements  in  Maine. 

It  has  frequently  been  affirmed  that  the  inhabitants  of 
Waldoboro  and  the  parts  where  the  old  German  settle- 
ments of  Maine  were  located,  have  preserved  many  traits 
distinct  from  the  surrounding  Yankee  element.  That 
would  be  a  surprising  phenomenon  in  a  locality  where 
intermarriages  have  been  so  very  frequent.  A  correspond- 
ent,^ well  acquainted  with  Waldoboro,  judges,  however, 
that  by  conservative  estimate  ninety  per  cent  of  the  pop- 
ulation are  of  German  descent.  Very  common  names  are 
such  as :  Schenck,  Schwartz,  Benner,  Kaler,  Waltz,  Born- 
heimer,  Ludwig,  Creamer  (Kramer),  Kuhn,  Hahn,  Hoffses, 
Schuman.  As  late  as  1840  sermons  in  German  were  occa- 

'  Frankfurter  Ober-Post-Amts-Zg.  no.  140,  August  31,  1751,  quoted  in 
Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xv,  pp.  208-210.  See  also  Frankfurter  Ober-Post- 
Amts-Zg.,  no.  98,  June  19,  1752,  etc. 

^  This  statement  is  contained  in  an  advertisement  in  a  German  paper,  and 
is  probably  extravagant. 

3  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xv,  p.  209. 

^  For  this  information  I  am  indebted  to  the  Reverend  Henry  0.  Thayer. 


262  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

slonally  heard  in  the  church  of  Waldoboro.^  During  the 
Revolutionary  War  the  Maine  Germans  were  heartily  pa- 
triotic. When  to  their  great  indignation  their  Tory  min- 
ister refused  to  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  a 
layman,  A.  Schenck,  translated  and  read  it  to  the  people. 
The  foregoing  chapter  intended  to  show  that  even  at 
I  the  extremities  of  the  American  colonies,  Georgia  and 
1  Maine  (Massachusetts),  the  Germans  took  firm  root  early 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  almost  at  the  time  of  the  forma- 
tion of  those  colonies.  Geographically  Ebenezer  and  Wald- 
oboro  are  the  Alpha  and  Omega  in  the  history  of  the 
German  element  before  the  period  of  the  Revolution. 

'  Judge  Groton's  statement,  Collections  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society, 
series  1,  vol.  v,  pp.  403-411. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  LOCATION  OF  THE  GERMAN  SETTLERS  BEFORE  1775; 
THEIR  DEFENSE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  ;  AND  AN  ESTIMATE 
OF    THEIR   NUMBERS 

The  location  of  the  Germans  before  the  Revolution  marked  by  counties 
(present  boundaries)  —  Two  facts  impress  themselves  :  (1)  that  the 
Germans  occupied  the  best  farming-lands  and  (2)  that  they  were  almost 
directly  on  the  frontier  from  Maine  to  Georgia  —  Their  defense  of  the 
frontier  ;  on  the  Mohawk  ;  and  during  the  French  and  Indian  War  — 
The  services  of  Conrad  Weiser  and  Christian  Frederick  Post,  as  envoys 
to  the  Indians,  etc.  —  An  estimate  of  the  number  of  settlers  of  German 
blood  in  the  thirteen  colonies  in  1775. 

To  see  at  a  glance  the  location  of  the  German  settlements 
before  the  Revolution,  a  map  has  been  prepared  (follow- 
ing this  page),  based  upon  a  study  of  the  population  by 
counties,  according  to  their  present  boundaries,  that  were 
inhabited  by  Germans/  As  far  as  our  present  sources  of 
information  tell  us,  the  counties  inhabited  by  Germans 
were  as  follows :  In  the  province  of  Massachusetts,  the 
counties  of  Lincoln,  Knox,  Waldo,  of  the  present  state  of 
Maine  ;  and  the  county  of  Franklin,  in  the  northwestern 
part  of  the  state  of  Massachusetts.  In  the  province  of 
New  York  the  Germans  inhabited  portions  of  Dutchess, 
Ulster,  Columbia,  and  Greene  counties  along  the  Hudson  ; 
Schoharie,  and  the  counties  along  the  Mohawk,  Montgom- 
ery, Fulton,  Herkimer,  and  portions  of  Oneida,  Saratoga, 

1  Where  the  population  was  about  one  half  (or  more)  German,  the  shad- 
ing is  dark  ;  where  about  one  third,  a  lighter  shade  appears.  If  a  German 
population  existed  less  than  one  third,  but  still  of  importance  and  influence, 
the  shading  is  faint. 


264  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 


and  Schenectady.  The  German  counties  of  Pennsylvania, 
exclusive  of  Philadelphia,  were  Montgomery,  Berks,  Lan- 
caster, Lehigh,  Lebanon,  Dauphin,  York,  Chester,  North- 
ampton, Monroe,  Cumberland,  and  Adams ;  of  Maryland 
they  were  Baltimore,  Frederick,  Washington,  and  (in  part) 
Carroll  counties.  New  Jersey  was  thickly  settled  by  Ger- 
mans in  Hunterdon,  Somerset,  Morris,  less  so  in  Sussex, 
Passaic,  Essex,  and  (in  the  southern  part)  Salem  counties. 
All  the  counties  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia  had  strong  Ger- 
man populations ;  in  West  Virginia,  Jefferson,  Berkeley, 
and  Morgan  counties ;  in  Virginia,  Clarke,  Frederick,  War- 
ren, Shenandoah,  Page,  Rockingham ;  also,  though  fewer 
in  number,  Augusta,  Rockbridge,  Bath,  Botetourt,  Mont- 
gomery, Wythe,  and  others.  East  of  the  mountains  in 
Virginia  the  following  counties  :  Madison,  Fauquier,  Rap- 
pahannock, Loudoun,  Prince  William,  Albemarle,  Greene, 
Louisa,  and  Orange ;  scattered  settlements  existed  in  the 
Isle  of  Wight  and  Henrico  counties,  and  elsewhere.  In 
the  Allesfhanies  Germans  had  located  in  the  counties  of 
Hampshire,  Mineral,  Hardy,  Grant,  Pendleton,  all  in 
West  Virginia,  along  Patterson  Creek,  and  the  South 
Branch  of  the  Potomac.  In  North  Carolina  the  westerly 
counties,  then  on  the  frontier,  along  the  Yadkin  and 
Catawba  rivers,  viz.,  Davidson,  Stanly,  Cabarrus,  Rowan, 
Iredell,  Catawba,  and  Lincoln  were  populated  by  Germans 
from  Pennsylvania ;  the  counties  of  Forsyth  and  Stokes 
were  settled  by  German  Moravians;  earlier  settlements 
existed  on  the  seacoast,  in  Craven  (Newbern)  and  Bruns- 
wick (Wilmington)  counties.  German  settlers  in  South 
Carolina  filled  the  counties  of  Orangeburg  and  Lexing- 
ton; portions  of  Barnwell,  Newberry,  Abbeville,  Fairfield, 
Richland,  Edgefield,  Beaufort  (Purysburg),  and  Charles- 
ton. In   Georgia  the  Germans  were    most  numerous    in 


GERMAN  SETTLEMENTS  AND   FRONTIER  LINE   IN   1775 


LOCATION   OF   SETTLERS    BEFORE   1775     265 

Effingham  County,  spreading  along  the  Savannah  River 
into  Screven,  Burke,  and  Chatham  counties,  i.  e.,  between 
Savannah  and  Augusta. 

As  we  study  on  the  map  the  location  of  the  Germans 
before  the  Revolution,  two  facts  impress  themselves.  In 
the  first  place,  the  Germans  were  in  possession  of  most 
of  the  best  land  for  farming  purposes.  They  had  cultivated 
the  great  limestone  areas  reaching  from  northeast  to 
southwest,  the  most  fertile  lands  in  the  colonies.  The 
middle  sections  of  Pennsylvania  were  in  their  possession, 
those  which  became  the  granary  of  the  colonies  in  the 
coming  Revolutionary  War,  and  subsequently  the  founda- 
tion of  the  financial  prosperity  of  the  new  nation.  The 
Shenandoah  and  Mohawk  valleys  were  the  rivals  of  the 
farm-lands  of  Pennsylvania,  while  the  German  counties  of 
North  and  South  Carolina  pushed  them  hard  for  agricul- 
tural honors.  The  Germans  in  these  sections  supplanted  all 
other  nationalities  through  their  superior  industry,  skill,  and 
material  resources  acquired  through  habits  of  economy. 

Even  before  the  Revolution  the  value  of  the  midland 
Pennsylvania  counties  as  provision-houses  for  armies  was 
recognized  by  the  following  incident.  In  1758  an  army  was 
raised  for  the  taking  of  Fort  Duquesne,  near  which  Brad- 
dock  had  met  disaster  three  years  before.  The  question 
arose  whether  the  army  starting  from  Pennsylvania  should 
go  straight  through  the  woods,  hewing  a  new  road,  or 
should  march  thirty-four  miles  southwestwardly  to  Fort 
Cumberland  in  Maryland  and  thence  follow  the  road  made 
by  Braddock.  It  was  in  accordance  with  the  interests  of 
Pennsylvania  that  the  new  road  be  made,  while  Virginia 
was  unwilling  to  see  a  highway  cut  for  her  rival  that  would 
lead  into  the  rich  lands  of  the  Ohio,  claimed  by  Virginia. 
Washington,  who  was  then  at  Fort  Cumberland  with  a 


266  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

part  of  his  regiment,  earnestly  advocated  taking  the  old 
road,  while  the  quartermaster-general.  Sir  William  Sin- 
clair, advised  in  favor  of  the  Pennsylvania  route.  The 
generals  in  command,  Forbes  and  Bouquet,  decided  for 
a  particular  reason  to  take  the  straight  course.  "It  was 
shorter  and  when  once  made  would  furnish  readier  and 
more  abundant  supplies  of  food  and  forage ;  but  to 
make  it  would  consume  a  vast  amount  of  time  and  labor."  ^ 
As  later  events  proved,  it  was  not  British  success  in  battle, 
but  mainly  the  advantage  of  position,  the  possibility  of 
getting  supplies  and  holding  out  longer,  advantages  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  French,  that  forced  the  latter  to 
evacuate  Fort  Duquesne.^ 
^  The  second  striking  fact  which  impresses  itself  in  a 
study  of  the  map  is  the  occupancy  by  the  German  settlers 
of  almost  the  entire  frontier  area  from  Maine  to  Georgia. 
On  the  accompanying  map  the  frontier  has  been  indicated 
by  a  line  representing  the  farthest  points  of  settlement 
toward  the  west.  Sometimes  forts  aided  in  determining 
the  position  of  the  line.^    The  farms  of  settlers  generally 

*  Parkman,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  vol.  ii,  p.  134.  (Boston,  1901.)  Bouquet 
did  justice  to  Colonel  Washington,  writing  to  Forbes  :  "  Colonel  Washington 
is  filled  with  a  sincere  zeal  to  aid  the  expedition,  and  is  ready  to  march  with 
equal  activity  by  whatever  way  you  choose." 

^  In  actual  fighting  the  French  and  Indians  had  the  better  of  it,  —  witness 
the  defeat  of  Grant  and  his  Scotch  Highlanders. 

^  The  task  of  drawing  the  frontier  line  was  one  of  considerable  difficulty. 
Contemporary  maps  were  used  to  determine  its  position,  such  as  those  found 
in  William  Russell,  The  History  of  America  (London,  1778)  ;  and  Thomas 
Jeffreys  (geographer  to  the  king),  The  American  Atlas  ;  or  a  Geographical 
Description  of  the  whole  Continent  of  America  (London,  1778).  The  frontier  line, 
as  drawn  on  the  map,  follows  the  one  hundred-foot  line  (U.  S.  Map,  Geo- 
logical Survey)  of  the  coast  of  Maine,  extending  with  it  up  the  Penobscot 
and  Kennebec  rivers,  and  retreating  again  toward  the  coast  ;  when  the  pre- 
sent boundary  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  is  reached,  it  is  made  to  ex- 
tend due  west  to  Stevens's  Fort  on  the  Connecticut  (about  midway  between 
the  forty-third  and  forty-fourth  parallels) ;  then  northwestward  on  the  path 


THEIR  DEFENSE  OF  THE   FRONTIER      267 

did  not  reach  the  forts;  the  forts,  therefore,  represent 
outposts  beyond  which  the  settlements  did  not  go. 

The  credit  for  defending  the  American  frontier  has 
very  commonly  been  accorded  to  the  Scotch  and  Irish 
settlers/  From  the  map  here  presented,  based  upon  a 
careful  study  of  the  location  of  the  German  settlers,  it 
appears  that  the  Scotch  and  Irish  could  not  have  had  a 
larger  share  in  the  defense  of  the  frontier  than  the  Ger- 
mans,  when  the  whole  extent  of  the  frontier  line  is  consid- 
ered. In  New  England  the  English  element  no  doubt 
stood  the  brunt  of  the  Indian  attacks.  In  New  York  the 
Mohawk  and  Schoharie  regions,  so  largely  inhabited  by 
Germans,  were  pushed  out  farthest  into  the  territory  of  the 
Six  Nations.  In  Pennsylvania  the  Germans  shared  with 
the  Scotch  and  Irish  the  distinction  of  defending  the  per- 
manent settlements  of  the  midland  counties.  In  Maryland 
there  were  no  Scotch  and  Irish  farther  west  than  the  Ger- 
man settlers  of  Washington  County,  except  perhaps  in 
isolated  instances  (as  that  of  Cresap).  In  Virginia  the 
Germans  were  more  numerous  than  any  other  element,  in 

to  Crown  Point  at  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Champlain  ;  then  southward  to 
Fort  George  (Fort  William  Henry)  and  to  Saratoga  ;  from  that  point  west- 
ward to  the  farthest  limit,  Fort  Stanwix  (now  Rome);  then  the  line  re- 
treats to  Cherry  Valley  and  farther  eastward  some  distance  ;  then  south- 
westward  to  Port  Jervis  ;  southwestward  again  to  Fort  Penn  (Stroudsburg), 
and  westward  to  Fort  Augusta  (Sunbury)  on  the  Susquehanna  ;  then  ex- 
tending along  the  edge  of  the  Blue  Ridge  (Tuscarora  Mountains)  to  the 
Potomac,  following  this  river  to  Fort  Cumberland  ;  thence  the  line  runs 
southwestward  along  the  Alleghany  mountain-range  to  a  little  east  of  the 
point  where  the  present  boundaries  of  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  meet 
Virginia ;  from  that  point  the  line  passes  southwestward  to  the  point  where 
the  Catawba  River  cuts  the  boundary  of  North  and  South  Carolina  (at  the 
western  boundary  of  Mecklenburg  County,  N.  C.)  ;  thence  southwestward 
to  Fort  Charlotte  (opposite  the  entrance  of  the  Broad  into  the  Savannah 
River)  ;  from  there  the  line  runs  parallel  to  the  Savannah  River  to  the  sea. 
*  Cf .  Hanna,  The  Scotch-Irish,  or  the  Scotch  in  North  Britain,  North  Ireland, 
and  North  America. 


268  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  Valley,  from  the  Potomac  to  Rockingham  County ;  be- 
yond that  the  Irish  and  Scotch-Irish  outnumbered  them; 
far  in  the  southwest,  even  before  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  there  were  for  a  time  German  settlements  on  the 
New  River,  and  Germans  appeared  among  the  earliest 
settlers  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Great  Kanawha.  In 
West  Virofinia  alono;  Patterson  Creek  and  the  South 
Branch  of  the  Potomac,  the  Germans  were  mingled  for 
the  most  part  with  English  settlers  in  about  equal  num- 
bers, according  to  the  diaries  of  the  Moravian  missionaries. 
In  North  Carolina  the  Scotch  and  Irish  were  farther  to 
the  southwest  for  at  least  half  of  the  frontier  line,  al- 
thouoh  the  Germans  were  close  at  their  heels.  In  South 
Carolina  the  Germans  occupied  the  larger  part  of  the 
frontier  area;  in  Georgia  they  formed  a  large  portion  of 
the  population  between  Savannah  and  Augusta. 

rY"  There  were  certain  reasons  why  so  large  a  j3ercentage 
of  the  German  immigration  settled  on  the  frontier,  similar 
causes  operating  for  the  bulk  of  the  Scotch,  Irish,  and 
Huguenot  immigrants.  They  were  poor,  and  were  obliged 

\  to  go  where  land  was  cheap  or  where  squatters  could 
maintain  their  independence.  Redemptioners  were  com- 
monly placed  as  far  out  on  the  frontier  as  possible,  as  for 
instance  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts,  where  the  Ger- 
man settlers  that  could  pay  for  their  land  were  sent  to 
the  Kennebec  and  Waldo  districts  in  Maine,  considered 

!  more  desirable,  and  the  others,  after  completion  of  their 
service-period,  were  sent  to  Fort  Massachusetts  on  the 

1  northwestern  frontier  of  the  province.  The  Germans, 
1  being  commonly  of  the  permanent  class  of  settlers  who 
1  made  the  best  of  their  land,*  suffered  greatly  from  the 

•  They  frequently  combined  in  one  generation  the  three  classes  of  settlers, 
the  hunter,  the  squatter,  and  the  permanent  settler.  Cf.  Chapter  IV,  p.  132. 


THEIR   DEFENSE   OF  THE   FRONTIER      269 

attacks  of  hostile  Indian  tribes.  Being  at  work  in  the 
fields  they  could  easily  be  taken  unawares,  and  their 
abundant  cattle  and  crops  tempted  the  predatory  invader. 
The  Indians  rarely  attacked  the  forts,  well  protected  by 
stockades;  even  when  the  forts  were  badly  equipped, 
"the  enemy  rarely  molested  even  the  feeblest  of  them, 
preferring  to  ravage  the  lonely  and  unprotected  farms."  ^ 
The  Mohawk  Valley  Germans  suffered  as  frequently 
and  as  terribly  as  any  pioneers  on  the  American  frontier. 
In  1746  the  French  and  Indians,  led  by  a  Jesuit,  Peter 
Coeur,  traversed  the  valley,  reaching  Schenectady,  and 
even  Albany.  This  war-party  was  in  search  of  bigger  game 
and  did  not  seriously  molest  the  farms  of  the  Mohawk, 
giving  them  merely  a  foreboding  of  coming  events.  The 
German  Flats  (the  present  Herkimer)  were  surprised  in 
1757  by  the  French  captain  Beletre.  Sir  William  Johnson,^ 
the  defender  of  the  Mohawk  settlers,  and  of  great  influ- 
ence among  the  Indians,  was  incapacitated  at  the  time  by 
illness.  Beletre  fell  upon  the  defenseless  farms  north  of 
the  Mohawk,  kilHng  about  forty  men,  women,  and  children, 
and  taking  about  one  hundred  prisoners.  He  did  not  dare 

>  Parkman,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  vol.  i,  p.  423  ;  Ihid.  p.  422  :  "  Meanwhile 
the  western  borders  were  still  ravaged  by  the  tomahawk.  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Vii-ginia  all  writhed  under  the  infliction. 
Each  had  made  a  chain  of  blockhouses  and  wooden  forts  to  cover  its  frontier, 
and  manned  them  with  disorderly  bands,  lawless,  and  almost  beyond  control." 

'  Sir  William  Johnson  was  born  in  Ireland.  He  married  a  German  woman, 
a  Palatine,  who  was  the  mother  of  two  sons,  who  figured  subsequently  as 
Tories.  The  second  wife  of  Johnson  was  a  sister  of  the  Indian  chief  Brant. 
Sir  William  Johnson  was  the  leader  of  the  forces  against  Crown  Point,  and 
was  created  a  baronet  for  his  services  in  that  campaign.  The  distinguished 
honors  which  the  family  received  and  the  wealth  acquired  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  crown,  undoubtedly  made  them  loyal  to  the  English  govern- 
ment. The  family  became  ardent  Tories  and  with  their  great  influence  over 
the  Indians  became  the  worst  possible  enemies  of  the  Mohawk  settlers  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  as  they  had  been  their  best  friends  during  the  French 
and  Indian  and  the  preceding  wars. 


270  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

to  attack  the  house  of  Herkimer  (Herckheimer),  on  the 
south  side  of  the  Mohawk,  because  it  was  reported  to  be  in 
a  condition  for  defense.  An  extravagant  report  was  sent 
by  Vaudreuil  to  the  Ministry  of  France,  in  which  it  was 
pretended  that  three  thousand  head  of  cattle,  three  thou- 
sand sheep,  fifteen  hundred  horses,  and  personal  property 
amounting  to  more  than  one  million  five  hundred  thou- 
sand livres  were  carried  away  from  the  German  Flats/ 

Although  the  population  on  the  German  Flats  numbered 
only  about  three  hundred  at  that  time,  and  their  wealth 
could  not  have  been  so  enormous,  nevertheless  the  report 
probably  would  not  have  been  so  extravagant  if  the  booty 
taken  had  not  been  large.  The  exaggerated  account  illus- 
trates the  fact  that  the  Mohawk  Germans  were  prosperous 
and  owned  fine  herds  of  live  stock.  The  next  year  (1758) 
the  enemy  came  in  greater  numbers  and  attacked  the 
southern  side  of  the  Mohawk.  Captain  Nicholas  Herkimer 
was  in  command  of  the  defenders,  and  acquitted  himself 
honorably,  as  he  did  subsequently  also  in  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  According  to  custom,  when  attacked  by  greater 
numbers,  the  colonists  gathered  in  a  protected  palisade 
fort,  whence  the  Indians  could  not  dislodge  them.  The 
farms  and  produce,  however,  had  to  be  abandoned,  a  prey 
to  the  robbers,  while  settlers  living  in  remote  localities 
were  left  to  their  fate.  Men,  women,  and  children  were 
killed  and  scalped,  the  men  often  tortured  to  death  and 
the  women  taken  to  Canada  as  prisoners,  while  their  houses 
and  crops  were  burned  before  their  eyes.  The  Indians  never 
tarried  long,  but  after  inflicting  severe  damage  to  life  and 
property,  escaped  as  rapidly  as  they  had  come,  suffering 
but  slight  loss  themselves. 

'  Parkman,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  vol.  ii,  p.  7,  note  ;  and  Eapp,  Geschichte 
der  Deutschen  im  Staate  New  York,  p.  162. 


THEIR  DEFENSE   OF  THE   FRONTIER      271 

In  the  province  of  Pennsylvania  the  troubles  between 
governor  and  assembly  occasioned  neglect  of  measures 
for  the  defense  of  the  frontier.  The  spirit  of  vacillation 
and  non-resistance  which  characterized  the  Quaker  govern- 
ment at  Philadelphia  resulted  in  untold  hardships  for  the 
frontiersmen.  After  Braddock's  defeat  in  1755  the  whole 
country  was  open  to  Indian  attacks.  News  came  that  the 
settlement  of  Tulpehocken,  only  sixty  miles  distant,  had 
been  destroyed,  that  the  Moravian  settlement,  Gnadenhiit- 
ten,  was  burned  and  nearly  all  its  inhabitants  massacred. 
Bodies  of  men,  gathered  together  from  many  places,  ap- 
peared in  Philadelphia  to  compel  the  governor  and  the 
assembly  to  defend  the  province.  Among  them  four  hun- 
dred Germans  marched  in  procession  to  demand  measures 
of  defense.  A  band  of  frontiersmen  presently  arrived, 
bringing  in  a  wagon  the  bodies  of  friends  and  relatives 
lately  murdered,  displaying  them  at  the  doors  of  the  as- 
sembly, amid  curses  and  threats  of  vengeance.*  Tardy 
measures  were  taken  for  defense.  The  province  of  Penn- 
sylvania, aided  by  the  home  government,  in  control  of 
William  Pitt,  adopted  the  plan  of  taking  Fort  Duquesne, 
and  fitted  out  the  expedition  already  referred  to,  under  the 
command  of  General  Forbes  and  Colonel  Bouquet.  Wash- 
ington commanded  a  division  of  Virginia  troops,  among 
whom  there  were  Virginia  Germans  of  the  Valley.  An- 
other division  was  that  under  the  command  of  Henry 
Bouquet,  a  native  of  Switzerland.  It  was  called  the  Royal 
American  Regiment,  and  was  a  new  corps  raised  in  de- 
fense of  the  colonies,  largely  composed  of  Germans  of 
Pennsylvania.^ 

On  the  southern  frontiers,  in  the  Carolinas,  the  Chero- 

>  Parkman,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  vol.  i,  p.  348. 

'  Parkman,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  vol.  ii,  pp.  132-133. 


272  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

kees  began  hostilities,  though  more  serious  ravages  oc- 
curred farther  northward  in  the  New  River  and  Great 
Kanawha  districts  where  the  settlements  were,  for  a  time 
at  least,  totally  destroyed. 

During  these  Indian  wars  there  were  two  Germans  who 
rendered  conspicuous  service.  Their  names  were  Conrad 
Weiser,  the  son  of  Johann  Conrad  Weiser,  the  Palatine 
leader,^  and  Christian  Frederick  Post,  the  Moravian  mis- 
sionary. Weiser,  who  had  lived  among  the  Mohawk  In- 
dians when  a  boy,  acquiring  their  language  and  also  kin- 
dred dialects,  was  famous  as  an  interjDreter.  The  Indians 
reposed  confidence  in  him,  and  his  presence  in  council  in- 
sured justice,  they  thought.  He  addressed  them  in  the  ora- 
torical manner  that  gave  them  delight,  and  the  story  of  his 
youth  made  his  personality  pleasing  to  them.  His  services 
brought  him  into  contact  with  all  the  tribes  of  the  Iroquois 
Nation  and  even  with  the  distant  Indians  of  the  Ohio 
Valley.  In  the  year  1737  he  undertook  a  long  journey  to 
Onondaga  in  New  York,  under  commission  from  Govern- 
ors Logan  of  Pennsylvania  and  Gooch  of  Virginia,  with 
the  purpose  of  inducing  the  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations  to 
make  a  truce  and  then  an  alliance  with  the  Cherokees 
and  Catawbas.  The  Indians  at  the  North  and  South  had 
waged  destructive  wars  against  one  another,  disturbing 
the  peace  also  of  the  pioneer  settlements.  The  mission 
was  completely  successful  and  was  carried  out  in  the 
severity  of  winter.  In  the  summer  of  1742,  Weiser  was 
again  one  of  the  principal  figures,  when  seventy  chiefs  and 
warriors  of  the  Six  Nations  met  in  council  with  Governor 
Thomas  of  Pennsylvania.  The  parley  lasted  ten  days, 
July  2  to  12.  The  two  difficult  objects  to  be  attained 
were,  firstly,  to  appease  the  Indians  for  land  robberies 

'  See  Chapter  rv,  pp.  94-95,  etc. 


THEIR  DEFENSE  OF  THE  FRONTIER      273 

committed,  and  secondly,  to  get  their  help  against  the 
threatened  French  invasion.  Contemporaries  reported  that 
without  Weiser's  tactful  mediation  the  matter  would  not 
have  been  so  quickly  and  happily  brought  to  a  conclu- 
sion. In  1745  the  Six  Nations  threatened  to  overrun  the 
Mohawk  Valley  settlements.  Land  robberies  again  had 
incensed  them,  and  French  agents  had  kindled  their 
revengeful  spirit.  Governor  CHnton  of  New  York  sent 
Weiser,  accompanied  by  several  friendly  Indian  chiefs, 
to  Onondaga,  and  from  there  to  Oswego,  with  the  result 
of  not  only  pacifying  the  Indians  but  of  regaining  their 
friendship.  In  1748,  under  orders  from  the  governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  Weiser  traveled  through  the  mountains 
of  Pennsylvania  to  the  Ohio,  and  on  the  Ohio  to  Logs- 
town,^  bringing  presents  to  the  Indians  to  keep  them 
from  an  alliance  with  the  French.  At  the  same  time  he 
observed  closely  the  character  of  the  French  settlements 
in  the  Ohio  Valley,  the  location  and  strength  of  their 
forts,  and  gathered  information  concerning  the  intentions 
of  the  enemy.  This  experience  served  him  in  good  stead 
in  1754,  when  representatives  of  seven  colonies  met  in 
council  with  the  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations,  to  form  a 
common  plan  of  resistance  against  the  French.  That  was 
an  important  moment  in  colonial  history.  It  was  alto- 
gether necessary  to  retain  the  friendship  and  to  secure 
the  alliance  of  the  Six  Nations  against  the  French  and 
their  allies,  the  hostile  Indians  of  the  Ohio.  Weiser  was 
able  to  repeat  in  the  language  of  the  Mohawks  his  ex- 
periences with  the  French  and  the  haughty  Indians  of  the 
Ohio  Valley,  and  he  roused  the  animosity  of  the  Six 
Nations  against  them,  taking  advantage  of  the  Indians' 
greed  for  land. 

1  Directly  west  of  Pittsburg,  near  the  Ohio  state  line. 


274  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

When  the  French  and  Indian  War  broke  out,  Weiser 
was  already  an  old  man.  Nevertheless  he  served  as  a  lieu- 
tenant-colonel of  the  militia,  and  as  Muhlenberg,  his 
son-in-law,  reports,  he  was  absent  much  on  consulta- 
tion in  Philadelphia  with  European  soldiers  concerning 
Indian  affairs.  Conrad  Weiser  died  during  the  war,  in 
1760.^ 

The  other  German  who  nobly  served  the  colonies  during 
the  Indian  troubles  was  the  missionary  Christian  Frederick 
Post,  a  member  of  the  Moravian  Brotherhood. 

Post  ^  spoke  the  Delaware  language,  knew  the  Indians  well, 
for  he  had  lived  among  them  and  married  a  converted  squaw. 
He  was  a  plain  German,  upheld  by  a  sense  of  duty  and  a  single- 
hearted  trust  in  God ;  alone,  with  no  great  disciplined  organiza- 
tion to  impel  and  support  him,  and  no  visions  and  illusions  such 
as  kindled  and  sustained  the  splendid  heroism  of  the  early  Jesuit 
martyrs  ;  yet  his  errand  was  no  whit  less  perilous.^ 

The  Moravian  envoy  made  his  way  to  the  Delaware  town  of 

^  Conrad  Weiser's  autobiography,  already  referred  to,  is  one  of  the  most 
curious  documents  of  its  kind,  not  only  valuable  for  the  life-history  which  it 
gives,  but  interesting  also  for  the  many  sidelights  on  religion  and  politics. 
Cf.  also  J.  H.  Walton,  Conrad  Weiser  and  the  Indian  Policy  of  Colonial 
Pennsylvania.  (Philadelphia,  Jacobs  &  Co.,  1908.) 

'  This  whole  passage,  containing  the  thrilling  narrative  of  Post's  mission 
to  the  Indians,  resulting  in  their  breaking  their  alliance  with  the  French,  is 
quoted  from  Francis  Parkman's  authoritative  work,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe, 
vol.  ii,  pp.  144:-150. 

3  "  Here  we  may  notice  the  contrast  between  the  mission  settlements  of 
the  Moravians  in  Pennsylvania  and  those  the  later  Jesuits  and  Sulpitians 
had  established  at  Caughnawaga,  St.  Francis,  La  Presentation,  and  other 
places.  The  Moravians  were  apostles  of  peace  and  they  succeeded  to  a  sur- 
prising degree  in  weaning  their  converts  from  their  ferocious  instincts  and 
warlike  habits,  while  the  mission  Indians  of  Canada  retained  all  their  native 
fierceness  and  were  systematically  impelled  to  use  their  tomahawks  against 
the  enemies  of  the  church.  Their  wigwams  were  hung  with  scalps,  male  and 
female,  adult  and  infant  ;  and  these  so-called  missions  were  but  nests  of 
baptized  savages,  who  wore  the  crucifix  instead  of  the  medicine-bag,  and 
were  encouraged  by  the  government  for  purposes  of  war."  Parkman,  Mont- 
calm and  Wolfe,  vol.  ii,  pp.  144-145. 


THEIE   DEFENSE   OF  THE   FRONTIER      275 

Kushkushkee,  on  Beaver  Creek,  northwest  of  Fort  Duquesne, 
where  the  three  chiefs  known  as  King  Beaver,  Shingas,  and  Del- 
aware George,  received  him  kindly  and  conducted  him  to  another 
town  on  the  same  stream.  Here  his  reception  was  different.  A 
crowd  of  warriors,  their  faces  distorted  with  rage,  surrounded 
him,  brandishing  knives  and  threatening  to  kill  him ;  but  others 
took  his  part,  and  order  being  at  last  restored,  he  read  them  his 
message  from  the  governor,  which  seemed  to  please  them.  They 
insisted,  however,  that  he  should  go  with  them  to  Fort  Duquesne 
in  order  that  the  Indians  assembled  there  might  hear  it  also. 
Against  this  dangerous  proposal  he  protested  in  vain.  On  arriv- 
ing near  the  fort  the  French  demanded  that  he  should  be  given 
up  to  them,  and  being  refused,  offered  a  great  reward  for  his 
scalp ;  on  which  his  friends  advised  him  to  keep  close  by  the 
camp-fire,  as  parties  were  out  with  intent  to  kill  him.  "  Accord- 
ingly, "  says  Post,  "  I  stuck  to  the  fire  as  if  I  had  been  chained 
there.  On  the  next  day  the  Indians  with  a  great  many  French 
officers  came  to  hear  what  I  had  to  say.  The  officers  brought 
with  them  a  table,  pens,  ink,  and  paper.  I  spoke  in  the  midst  of 
them  with  a  free  conscience,*  and  perceived  by  their  looks  that 
they  were  not  pleased  with  what  I  said."  The  substance  of  his 
message  was  an  invitation  to  the  Indians  to  renew  the  old  chain 
of  friendship,  joined  with  a  warning  that  an  English  army  was 
on  its  way  to  drive  off  the  French,  and  that  they  would  do  well 
to  stand  neutral. 

He  addressed  an  audience  filled  with  an  Inordinate  sense  of 
their  own  power  and  importance,  believing  themselves  greater 
and  braver  than  either  of  the  European  nations  and  yet  deeply 
jealous  of  both.  "  We  have  heard,"  they  said,  "  that  the  French 
and  English  mean  to  kill  all  the  Indians  and  divide  the  lands 
among  themselves,"  and  on  this  string  they  harped  continually.^ 

After  waiting  some  days  the  three  tribes  of  the  Delawares 

'  Parkman  quotes  from  the  journal  of  Christian  Frederick  Post  here  and 
elsewhere,  dated  July,  August,  September,  October,  November,  1758. 

2  Parkman  says  that  if  they  had  known  their  true  interest  they  would 
not  have  made  peace  with  the  English,  but  would  have  all  united  to  form  a 
barrier  of  fire  against  their  farther  progress. 


276  THE   GEKMAN  ELEMENT 

met  in  council,  and  made  their  answer  to  the  message  brought  by 
Post.  It  was  worthy  of  a  proud  and  warlike  race,  and  was  to  the 
effect  that  since  their  brothers  of  Pennsylvania  wished  to  renew 
the  old  peace-chain,  they  on  their  part  were  willing  to  do  so,  pro- 
vided that  the  wampum  belt  should  be  sent  them  in  the  name, 
not  of  Pennsylvania  alone,  but  of  the  rest  of  the  provinces  also. 

Having  now  accomplished  his  errand,  Post  wished  to  return 
home ;  but  the  Indians  were  seized  with  an  access  of  distrust, 
and  would  not  let  him  go.  This  jealousy  redoubled  when  they 
saw  him  writing  in  his  notebook.  "  It  is  a  troublesome  cross  and 
heavy  yoke  to  draw  this  people,"  he  says;  "they  can  punish 
and  squeeze  a  body's  heart  to  the  utmost.  There  came  some  to- 
gether and  examined  me  about  what  I  had  wrote  yesterday.  I 
told  them  I  writ  what  was  my  duty.  '  Bi-others,  I  tell  you,  I  am 
not  afraid  of  you.  I  have  a  good  conscience  before  God  and 
man.  I  tell  you,  brothers,  there  is  a  bad  spirit  in  your  hearts 
which  breeds  jealousy  and  will  keep  you  ever  in  fear.'  "  At  last 
they  let  him  go;  and  eluding  a  party  that  lay  in  wait  for  his 
scalp,  he  journeyed  twelve  days  through  the  forest  and  reached 
Fort  Augusta  with  the  report  of  his  mission. 

As  the  result  of  it,  a  great  convention  of  white  men  and  red 
was  held  at  Easton  in  October.  The  neighboring  provinces  had 
been  asked  to  send  their  delegates,  and  some  of  them  did  so; 
while  belts  of  invitation  were  sent  to  the  Indians  far  and  near. 
Sir  William  Johnson,  for  reasons  best  known  to  himself,  at  first 
opposed  the  plan ;  but  was  afterwards  led  to  favor  it  and  to  in- 
duce tribes  under  his  influence  to  join  in  the  grand  pacification. 
The  Five  Nations,  with  the  smaller  tribes  lately  admitted  into 
their  conference,  the  Delawares  of  the  Susquehanna,  the  Mohe- 
gans,  and  several  kindred  bands,  all  had  their  representatives 
at  the  meeting.  The  conferences  lasted  nineteen  days,  with  the 
inevitable  formalities  of  such  occasions  and  the  weary  repetition 
of  conventional  metaphors  and  long-winded  speeches. 

When  their  difficulty  was  settled,  the  governor  of  Penn- 
sylvania addressed  the  assembled  Indians  and 

gave  them  the  wampum  belt,  with  the  request  that  they  would 


THEIR  DEFENSE   OF   THE  FRONTIER      277 

send  it  to  their  friends  and  allies  and  invite  them  to  take  hold 
also  of  the  chain  of  friendship.  Accordingly  all  present  agreed 
on  the  joint  message  of  peace  to  the  tribes  of  the  Ohio. 

Frederick  Post,  with  several  white  and  Indian  companions, 
was  chosen  to  bear  it.  A  small  escort  of  soldiers  that  attended 
him  as  far  as  the  Alleghany  was  cut  to  pieces  on  its  return 
by  a  band  of  the  very  warriors  to  whom  he  was  carrying  his 
offers  of  friendship;  and  other  tenants  of  the  grim  and  frowning 
wilderness  met  the  invaders  of  their  domain  with  inhospitable 
greetings.  The  young  warriors  said:  "Anybody  can  see  with 
half  an  eye  that  the  English  only  mean  to  cheat  us ;  let  us  knock 
the  messengers  in  the  head."  I  said:  "As  God  has  stopped  the 
mouths  of  the  lions,  that  they  could  not  devour  Daniel,  so  he 
will  preserve  us  from  their  fury."  The  chiefs  and  elders  were 
of  a  different  mind  from  their  fierce  and  capricious  young  men. 
They  met  during  the  evening  in  the  log  house  where  Post  was 
to  be  lodged  ;  and  here  a  French  officer  presently  arrived  with 
a  string  of  wampum  from  the  commandant,  inviting  them  to 
help  him  drive  back  the  army  of  Forbes.  The  string  was  scorn- 
fully rejected.  "They  kicked  it  from  one  to  another  as  if  it 
were  a  snake."  .  .  .  There  was  a  grand  council  at  which  the 
French  officer  was  present;  and  Post  delivered  the  peace 
message  from  the  council  at  Easton  with  another  with  which 
Forbes  had  charged  him.  The  messages  pleased  all  the  hearers 
except  the  French  captain.  He  shook  his  head  in  bitter  grief 
and  often  changed  countenance.  .  .  .  After  the  Indians  began  to 
mock  him,  he  went  out.  The  overtures  of  peace  were  accepted, 
and  the  Delawares,  Shawanoes,  and  Mingoes  were  no  longer 
enemies  of  the  English. 

The  loss  was  all  the  more  disheartening  to  the  French, 
since  a  few  weeks  before  they  had  won  a  victory  over  a 
part  of  the  army  of  Forbes,  because  of  which  they  hoped 
to  hold  their  wavering  allies.  Major  Grant,  in  command 
of  the  Highlanders,  had  prevailed  upon  Colonel  Bouquet 
to  allow  him  to  detach  eight  hundred  men  from  the  ad- 
vancing army,  in  order  to  reconnoitre  Fort  Duquesne. 


278  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

The  troops,  consisting  of  Highlanders  (Scotchmen),  Royal 
Americans  (Germans  of  Pennsylvania),  and  Provincials 
(Virginians),  started  together  from  the  camp  at  Loyal- 
hannon,  but,  owing  to  the  bad  generalship  of  Grant,  who 
divided  his  forces  so  that  they  could  not  support  one 
another,  the  expedition  met  with  disaster.  The  enemy  out- 
numbered them  even  when  united ;  Grant's  force  was 
completely  routed,  five  hundred  and  forty,  however,  out 
of  the  eight  hundred  and  thirteen  returning  safely.  In 
spite  of  this  defeat,  which  had  happened  a  few  weeks  be- 
fore, the  mission  of  Post  was  successful.  He  was  pe7'sona 
grata  among  the  Indians,  beloved  and  respected  by  many, 
and  no  better  messenger  could  have  been  chosen  for  this 
dangerous  embassy.  The  selection  of  Post,  as  well  as  the 
plan  of  the  meeting  at  Easton,  was  the  work  of  General 
Forbes,  as  the  next  in  command,  the  tactful  Colonel  Bou- 
quet explained  in  a  private  letter.^  Fort  Duquesne  was  evac- 
uated by  the  French,  after  they  were  left  in  the  lurch  by 
their  Indian  allies  and  by  the  troops  from  Louisiana  and 
the  Southwest.  These  desertions  becoming  known,  the 
army  of  Forbes  made  forced  marches  over  the  mountains, 
and  took  the  fort  without  opposition  shortly  after  its 
evacuation. 

In  the  defense  of  the  frontier  during  the  French  and 
Indian  War,  the  Royal  Americans  made  a  glorious  record. 

*  Bouquet  to  Chief  Justice  Allen,  25  November,  1758.  Quoted  by  Park- 
man,  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  vol.  ii,  p.  161  :  "  After  God,  the  success  of  this 
expedition  is  entirely  due  to  the  general,  who  by  bringing  about  the  treaty 
with  the  Indians  at  Easton  struck  the  French  a  stunning  blow,  wisely  de- 
layed our  advance  to  wait  the  effects  of  that  treaty,  secured  all  our  posts, 
and  left  nothing  to  chance,  and  resisted  the  urgent  solicitation  to  take  Brad- 
dock's  road,  which  would  have  been  our  destruction.  In  all  his  measures 
he  has  shown  the  greatest  prudence,  firmness,  and  ability.  "  General  Forbes 
was  a  martyr  to  this  work.  He  suffered  from  a  severe  illness  during  the 
whole  campaign,  and  died  shortly  after  its  completion. 


THEIR  DEFENSE   OF   THE   FRONTIER      279 

This  regiment  consisted  of  four  battalions,  of  one  thou- 
sand men  each.  Fifty  of  the  officers  were  to  be  foreign 
Protestants,  while  the  enlisted  men  were  to  be  raised  prin- 
cipally from  among  the  German  settlers  in  America.  The 
immediate  commander  was  Colonel  (later  General)  Bou- 
quet, a  Swiss  by  birth,  an  English  officer  by  adoption, 
and  a  Pennsylvanian  by  naturalization,  the  last  a  distinc- 
tion conferred  upon  him  for  his  campaign  in  Western  Penn- 
sylvania, where  he  with  Forbes  wiped  out  the  disgrace  of 
Braddock's  defeat.*  The  rank  and  file  of  the  regiment 
were  German  and  Swiss  settlers  of  Pennsylvania,  young 
men  enlisted  for  three  years,  and  they  saw  service  in  all 
parts  of  the  colonies.  A  list  of  their  campaigns  is  as  fol- 
lows :  ^ 

1757.  First  Battalion  in  Indian  wars. 

Five  companies  under  Stanwix  in  Pennsylvania. 

Third  Battalion  at  Fort  Hunter  and  Fort  William  Henry. 

Second  and  Fourth  at  Louisbourg. 

First  Battalion  under  Bouquet  in  South  Carolina. 

First  and  Fourth  at  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga. 

1758.  Second  and  Third  Battalions  at  Louisbourg. 

First  and  Fourth  under  Bouquet  and  Forbes  at  Fort  Du- 
quesne. 

1759.  Fourth  Battalion  under  Prideaux  at  Fort  Niagara. 
Second  and  Third  under  Wolfe  at  Quebec. 
Fourth  under  Haldiman  at  Oswego. 

First  under  Amherst  at  Lake  Champlain. 
Fourth  under  Sir  William  Johnson,  Bouquet,  Stanwix, 
and  Wolfe  at  Quebec. 

1760.  First,  Second,  and  Third  at  Quebec. 

1  Cf.  Rosengarten,  The  German  Soldier  in  the  Wars  of  the  United  States, 
pp.  16-22.  (Philadelphia,  1890.)  A  history  of  the  Royal  American  Regiment 
is  found  in  A  Regimental  Chronicle,  and  List  of  Officers  of  the  Sixtieth,  for- 
merly the  Sixty-second,  or  the  Royal  American  Regiment  of  Foot.  By  N.  W. 
Wallace.  (London,  1879.) 

2  Rosengarten,  supra,  pp.  19-20. 


280  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

1761.  First  in  Virginia. 

1762.  Third  at  Martinique  and  Havana. 

1763.  First  under  Bouquet  at  Bushy  Run  and  Pittsburg. 

These  campaigns  made  veterans  of  the  Pennsylvania 
boys  and  prepared  a  nucleus  of  self-reliant  soldiers  for  the 
coming  war  of  the  Revolution. 

The  story  of  the  sufferings  of  pioneer  settlers,  who  were 
constantly  exposed  to  the  inroads  of  savages  during 
more  than  'half  a  century  of  conflict,"  is  too  distressing 
a  narrative  for  detailed  depiction.  History  repeated  itself 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  therefore  instances 
of  heroism  on  the  part  of  German  frontiersmen  will  be 
cited  in  the  following  chapter  (xi).  The  Germans  of 
Pennsylvania,  until  the  Revolutionary  War,  were  left  more 
at  peace  than  many  of  the  other  frontier  settlers,  a  cir- 
cumstance probably  due  to  the  missionary  work  of  the 
Moravians  and  to  the  pacific  policy  adopted  toward  the 
Indians  by  the  Quaker  government.  The  Virginians,  the 
"Long  Knives,"  would  never  admit  this  to  be  the  fact, 
claiming  that  the  reason  of  the  Indian  preference  was 
that  the  Virginians  were  settlers  and  the  Pennsylvanians 
only  traders.  Such  a  view,  however,  contradicts  the  facts, 
the  Pennsylvanians  being  preeminently  settlers. 

The  question  as  to  how  large  was  the  total  number  of 
German  settlers  in  the  colonies  before  the  Revolutionary 
War  is  one  which  cannot  be  determined  with  accuracy. 
There  are  no  exact  statistics  extant  concerning  the  popu- 
lation of  the  thirteen  colonies.  The  Continental  Congress 
of  1776  made  an  estimate  of  the  population  as  a  basis 
from  which  to  apportion  the  expenses  of  the  war.^  The 
figures  of  this  congressional  conjectural  census  are  as 
follows :  — 

*  Pitkin's  Statistics,  p.  683  ;  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  li,  p.  399. 


AN  ESTIMATE   OF  THEIR  NUMBERS       281 


New  Hampshire 

102,000 

Massachusetts  (including  Maine) 

352,000 

Rhode  Island 

58,000 

Connecticut 

202,000 

New  York  (including  Vermont) 

238,000 

New  Jersey 

138,000 

Pennsylvania 

341,000 

Delaware 

37,000 

Maryland 

171,000 

Virginia  (including  Kentucky) 

300,000 

North  Carolina  (including  Tennessee) 

181,000 

South  Carolina 

93,000 

Georgia 

27,000 

Total  white  population 

2,243,000 

Slave  population 

500,000 

Grand  total 

2,743,000 

This  estimate  is  generally  considered  too  large,  since 
the  census  of  1790  showed  a  total  white  population  of 
only  3,172,006.  New  Hampshire  took  a  state  census  in 
1782  to  lessen  its  proportion  of  the  general  taxes,  and  as 
a  result  of  that  census  reported  its  population  at  82,000, 
which  figure  was  probably  as  far  below  the  true  number 
as  the  congressional  estimate  was  above  it.  Bancroft  esti- 
mated the  total  white  population  of  the  colonies  in  1775  at 
2,100,000.^ 

For  the  Scotch  and  Irish,  Hanna  ^  makes  an  estimate  of 
385,000,  which  he  derives  in  the  following  way  :  Leaving 
New  England  out  of  consideration  (assigning  to  it  one 
third  of  the  population,  viz.,  700,000),  since  its  population 
was  almost  purely  English,  he  takes  Bancroft's  figures  for 

»  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iv,  p.  62.  (1888.) 

2  See  Charles  A.  Hanna,  The  Scotch-Irish,  or  the  Scotch  in  North  Britain, 
North  Ireland,  and  North  America,  vol.  i,  pp.  82-84.  (New  York  and  London, 
Putnam,  1902.) 


282  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  territory  west  of  the  Hudson  and  south  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  district,  which  are  as  follows :  — 


New  York  (excluding  Vermout) 

202,000 

New  Jersey 

109,000 

Pennsylvania 

273,000 » 

Delaware 

30,000 

Maryland 

134,000 

Virginia  (including  Kentucky) 

325,000 

North  Carolina  (including  Tennessee) 

206,000 

South  Carolina 

90,000 

Georgia 

34,000 

1,403,000 

Hanna  estimates  the  inhabitants  of  Scotch  and  Irish  blood 
or  descent  to  have  been  one  eighth  of  the  whole  white 
population  in  New  York ;  one  fifth  to  one  fourth  in  the 
states  of  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  and  Virginia ;  more  than 
one  third  in  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  North  Carolina,  and 
Georgia;  and  one  half  in  South  Carolina,  resulting  as 
follows :  — 

New  York  25,000 

New  Jersey  25,000 

Pennsylvania  100,000 

Delaware  10,000 

Maryland  30,000 

/     Virginia  75,000 

(      North  Carolina  65,000 

South  Carolina  45,000 

Georgia  10,000 

385,000 

To  get  at  the  approximate  number  of  inhabitants  in 
1775  who  were  of  German  blood  is  just  as  diaicult.  In 

*  This  estimate  for  Pennsylvania  is  extremely  low,  as  compared  with  the 
congressional  census,  viz.,  341,000. 


AN   ESTIMATE   OF  THEIR  NUMBERS       283 

New  England  the  settlements  of  Maine,  those  around  Fort 
Massachusetts,  and  near  Boston,  probably  together  con- 
tained about  fifteen  hundred  Germans.  For  New  York 
State  we  can  get  nearer  a  correct  estimate.  The  census 
made  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Kocherthal  of  the  Palatines  in 
New  York  State  in  1718  estimated  the  Germans  at  about 
two  thousand.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  low  estimate, 
and  corrected,  as  explained  in  Chapter  iv,^  would  in 
1720  make  about  twenty-five  hundred.  The  natural  in- 
crease, doubling  in  about  twenty-three  years  (three  per 
cent  a  year),  added  to  the  new  arrivals  at  the  port  of 
New  York,  would  make  about  twenty-five  thousand.  Penn- 
sylvania's German  population,  as  has  been  explained  in 
Chapter  v,'  was  about  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand. 
Judging  by  the  numerous  German  churches  in  the  north- 
ern counties  of  New  Jersey,  by  the  proximity  to  the  sea- 
ports of  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  the  German  popu- 
lation in  New  Jersey  must  have  been  no  less  than  fifteen 
thousand.  Maryland  was  thickly  settled  by  Germans  in  the 
western  counties  of  Frederick  and  Washington,  and  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Baltimore;  giving  Delaware  five 
hundred,  the  German  population  of  the  two  states  together 
can  be  estimated  at  about  20,500.  More  numerous  was 
the  German  population  of  Virginia  and  West  Virginia. 
The  German  colonies  visited  by  the  Moravian  missionaries 
in  the  Valley  and  on  the  South  Branch,  about  1744—50, 
represented  about  three  to  five  thousand  settlers.  The 
natural  increase  and  the  German  settlements  in  other 
counties,  enumerated  in  Chapter  vii,  probably  made  a  total 
of  twent^  'i"^e  thousand.  South  Carolina's  German  popu- 
lation can  be  estimated  in  the  following  way :  In  the  year 
1788  fifteen  German  churches  were  incorporated  under 

1  See  p.  92.  »  See  p.  128. 


284  THE   GEEMAN  ELEMENT 

the  laws  of  the  state  (Chapter  viii,  see  pages  226-227). 
These  churches  were  in  existence  before  the  Revolution, 
and  probably  were  more  numerous  at  that  time,  many  be- 
ing burned  and  pillaged  and  their  congregations  scattered 
during  the  war,  by  Tory  raids.  The  question  arises,  how 
large  a  population  does  a  single  church  represent?  Some 
light  on  that  subject  is  afforded  by  the  estimate  of  Schlat- 
ter. He  counted  the  number  of  the  German  Reformed  in 
Pennsylvania  as  thirty  thousand,  distributed  among  forty- 
six  congregations,  sixteen  parishes,  to  be  served  by  as 
many  pastors.^  If  forty-six  congregations  represent  thirty 
thousand  people,  fifteen  churches  would  represent  at  least 
ten  thousand  people,  since  congregations  were  frequently 
not  large  enough  to  build  churches.  The  fifteen  churches 
did  not  include  the  church  in  Charleston  nor  numerous 
other  smaller  settlements,  nor  the  non-church-going  Ger- 
mans scattered  beyond  the  interior,  i.  e.,  on  the  frontier 
where  no  ministers  were  available.  The  estimate  of  fifteen 
thousand  is  therefore  not  excessive.  North  Carolina  had 
quite  a  large  German  population  before  1775,  as  has  been 
seen  in  the  account  of  settlements  in  the  central  part  of 
the  state  (Chapter  viii),  and  as  is  also  evident  from  the 
tradition  that  there  were  immigrations  of  Germans  from 
North  Carolina  into  Virginia.  We  may  estimate  the  pop- 
ulation at  about  one  half  that  of  South  Carolina,  viz., 
eight  thousand.  Georgia  had  twelve  hundred  Salzburgers 
in  1741  according  to  documentary  evidence.  The  natural 
increase  up  to  1775,  added  to  the  new  arrivals,  could  not 
have  been  less  than  five  thousand.  This  is  a  very  small 
estimate  in  view  of  the  political  importance  of  the  Salz- 
burgers during  the  Revolutionary  War.  A  summary  of 
estimates  will  appear  as  follows :  — 

*  Hallesche  Nachrichten  (Reprint),  vol.  i,  p.  411. 


AN  ESTIMATE   OF  THEIR  NUMBERS       285 


New  England 

1,500 

New  York 

25,000 

Pennsylvania 

110,000 

New  Jersey 

15  000 

Maryland  and  Delaware 

20^500 

Virginia  and  West  Virginia 

25,000 

North  Carolina 

8,000 

South  Carolina 

15,000 

Georgia 

5,000 

Total 

225,000 

This  estimate  is  very  conservative,  being  based  upon 
estimates  of  the  numbers  in  known  German  colonies.  The 
number  of  scattered  German  settlers  in  the  large  cities, 
and  the  number  of  settlements  of  which  there  is  no  record, 
must  have  been  quite  large.  An  estimate  of  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  thousand  inhabitants  of  German  blood 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  must  therefore  be  re- 
garded as  a  minimum.  It  would  mean  that  a  little  more 
than  one  tenth  of  the  total  white  population  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  of  independence  was  of  German  blood. 
In  certain  localities,  of  course,  the  German  population 
was  much  larger  in  proportion  to  the  total  population, 
notably  in  Pennsylvania,  where  it  was  one  third  of  the 
total  number.  Future  researches  in  the  colonial  history  of 
the  Germans  will  undoubtedly  reveal  larger  numbers  than 
have  been  given  above,  but  the  attempt  has  been  made 
here  to  confine  the  estimate  within  limits  that  are  clearly 
incontestable. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE     GERMANS    AS   PATRIOTS    AND    SOLDIERS    DURING  THE 
WAR    OF    THE    REVOLUTION,  1775-1783 

Activity  of  Germans  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  agitation  —  Serv- 
ices of  sectarians  in  the  war  —  The  Tories  —  Resolutions  of  the 
Virginia  Valley  Germans  —  The  Salzburgers  as  patriots  —  The  German 
regiments  —  Armand's  Legion  —  Washington's  body-guard  —  Two  types 
of  German  patriots  :  Peter  Muhlenberg  and  the  baker,  Ludwig  —  The 
Mohawk  Germans — Battle  of  Oriskauy  —  Herkimer  —  Results  of  the 
battle  —  Heroism  on  the  frontier  —  German  officers  in  the  American 
army  :  Baron  Steuben,  his  services  ;  John  Kalb ;  F.  H.  Weissenfels  ; 
Ziegler  ;  Lutterloh  ;  Schott,  etc.  —  The  Hiester  and  Miihlenberg  fami- 
lies —  German  families  of  Charleston,  etc.  —  Individuals,  Dohrmann,  etc. 
—  Germans  in  the  French  service  —  Siege  of  Yorktown  —  The  Hessians. 

The  French  and  Indian  War  was  the  training-school  for 
the  Revolutionary  struggle.  The  extensive  service  of  the 
Royal  American  Regiment,  described  in  the  foregoing 
chapter,  laid  the  foundation  of  military  experience  among 
the  German  settlers  of  Pennsylvania.  In  the  Mohawk 
Valley  Herkimer  gathered  the  people  together,  and  in 
the  Valley  of  Virginia  German  military  companies  were 
quickly  organized.  There  existed  in  the  colonies  a  large 
number  of  German  sectarians,  Mennonites,  Quakers,  Dunk- 
ards,  Seventh-Day  Baptists,  and  others,  whose  religion 
forbade  the  use  of  arms.  They,  like  the  English  Quakers, 
represented  the  spirit  of  non-resistance,  which  inflicted 
much  suffering  upon  the  frontier  settlers  during  the 
French  and  Indian  War.  The  newspaper  of  Sauer  gave 
expression  to  this  pacific  attitude,  which  should  not,  how- 
ever, be  mistaken  for  Toryism.  The  Mennonites  and  other 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     287 

religious  sects,  though  they  did  not  bear  arms,  furnished 
in  suppHes  and  taxes  the  equivalent  of  trained  eyes  and 
limbs.  They  would  not  at  any  time  have  been  unwilling 
to  lay  down  their  lives  for  their  country.  The  Moravians 
of  North  CaroHna  submitted  cheerfully  to  a  triple  tax 
levied  upon  them  by  the  province,  in  lieu  of  military  service. 
The  more  vigorous  and  manly  virtues  of  the  Germans, 
who  as  a  race  from  the  beginning  of  their  history  proved 
themselves  good  warriors,  were  represented  by  such  men 
as  Muhlenberg  and  Schlatter.  The  latter  was  the  army 
chaplain  of  the  Royal  Americans  in  the  French  and  In- 
dian War,  and  served  in  a  similar  capacity  during  the 
Revolution.  The  Reverend  H.  M.  Muhlenberg  was  proud 
of  the  military  achievements  of  his  sou  Peter  (to  be  noted 
below),  and  his  directing  hand  was  evident  from  the  very 
beo-inning".  In  1775  the  vestries  of  the  German  Lutheran 
and  Reformed  churches  in  Philadelphia  sent  a  pamphlet 
of  forty  pages  to  the  Germans  of  New  York  and  North 
Carolina,  stating  that  the  Germans  in  the  near  and  remote 
parts  of  Pennsylvania  had  formed  not  only  militia  com- 
panies, but  a  select  corps  of  sharpshooters  ready  to  march 
wherever  they  were  required,  while  those  who  could  not 
do  military  service  were  willing  to  contribute  according 
to  their  abilities.^  An  earnest  appeal  was  made  to  the  Ger- 
mans in  other  colonies  for  armed  resistance  against  the 
"oppression  and  despotism"  of  the  English  government. 
With  the  sanction  of  Muhlenberg  back  of  it,  this  appeal 
must  have  produced  a  thrill  of  enthusiasm  among  the  Ger- 
man population.  The  volunteers  of  Pennsylvania  were 
called  "  Associators"  ;  those  who  were  Germans  had  their 
headquarters  at  the  Lutheran  schoolhouse  in  Philadelphia. 

*  Rosengarten,  The  German  Soldier  in  the  Wars  of  the  United  States,  p.  29. 
(Second  edition,  Lippincott,  Philadelphia,  1890.) 


288  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

There  were  very  few  German  Tories  in  Pennsylvania, 
though  there  were  many  sectarians.  One  notable  exception 
was,  not  the  printer  Sauer  himself,  but  his  two  sons,  who 
during  the  occupation  of  Philadelphia  by  General  Howe 
published  a  newspaper  voicing  Tory  sentiments.  It  was 
the  only  case  on  record  of  a  German  Tory  paper  printed 
in  the  colonies.  Its  influence  could  not  have  been  of  any 
importance  at  all,  and  its  pages  were  perused  more  seri- 
ously abroad  than  on  this  side  of  the  water.  Schlozer  prints 
a  complete  copy  of  one  of  the  issues  of  the  paper  (May  6, 
1778) ;  it  is  a  curious  jumble  of  local  items,  advertise- 
ments, misstatements,  and  flamboyant  verses.^  The  social 
condition  of  the  Grermans  in  the  colonies  forced  them  as 
a  necessary  consequence  into  the  Democratic  party.  They 
were  not  members  of  families  that  had  been  in  favor  at 
court  for  generations ;  they  were  not  owners  of  estates 

1  August  Ludwig  Schlozer's  Professors  in  Gottingen,  etc.  Briefwechsel, 
meisthistorischen  u.  politischen  Inhalts,  Dritter  Theil,  Heft  xvii,  pp.  260-263. 
(Gottingen,  1778.)  The  paper  is  called  a  weekly:  Der  Pennsylvanische  Staats- 
Courier  oder  Einlaufende  Wochentliche  Nachrichten.  Alle  Wochen  heraus- 
gegeben  von  Christoph  Saur  jun.  und  Peter  Saur.  Of  curious  interest  are 
the  verses  describing  a  caricature  of  King  George  bending  one  knee  before 
Washington  and  directed  to  bend  the  other,  followed  by  an  exhortation  to 
loyalists  :  — 

Der  Konig  liegt  vor  ihm  (Washington),  auf  einem  Knie  gebogen. 
1st  dieses  wiirklich  wahr  ?  Herr,  es  ist  nicht  gelogen  ? 
Und  was  noch  arger  ist,  er  soil  mit  Fingern  zeigen 
Der  Konig  raoge  doch  das  andre  Knie  auch  beigen. 
Ist  das  nicht  unverschiimt  ?  den  Frevel  muss  man  strafen, 
Heiszt  das  ein  freies  Volk  ?  Nein  —  Sie  sind  Congresz  Sklaven. 
Auf !  Auf  !  ihr  Britten  auf  !  Ihr  Hessen  f  rischen  Mut ! 
Marschirt  nur  hurtig  vor  ;  des  Konigs  Sach  steht  gut !  etc. 

An  amusing  couplet  found  in  the  same  issue,  written  by  some  aspiring 
poetaster,  called  "  Eine  Satire,"  is  as  follows  :  — 

Ich  will  —  ich  mag  —  ich  kann  nicht  schweigen  ! 
(Wiewohl  ich  weisz,  die  Thoren  woUen  mich  nicht  gleichen.) 
(These  verses  are  quoted  as  specimens,  recommending  the  book  of  verse.) 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     289 

that  were  gifts  of  the  crown ;  they  felt  no  national  senti- 
ments binding  them  to  a  British  prince.  They  were  men 
who  had  hewn  their  own  farms  out  of  the  wild  forest,  had 
maintained  their  independence  against  its  savage  inhab- 
itants, and  now  claimed  as  their  own  the  soil  on  which 
their  battles  had  been  won.  Frontiersmen  —  and  most  of 
the  Germans  were  or  had  been  such —  gained  from  their 
mode  of  life  a  degree  of  independence  which  often  set 
them  in  opposition  to  the  policies  of  the  seaboard.  The 
conservative  easterly  settlements  were  better  satisfied  with 
the  status  quo,  the  frontiersmen  looked  beyond,  aspired 
to  new  conditions,  and  were  ready  to  make  a  bold  venture. 
The  frontier  turned  the  balance  toward  independence. 

In  the  opinion  of  John  Adams,  the  people  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  were  very  equally  divided  between  the 
Tory  and  Democratic  parties,  and  nearly  one  third  of  the 
whole  population  of  the  colonies,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, were  Tories.  "  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  were  so 
nearly  divided,  if  their  propensity  was  not  against  us,  that 
if  New  England  on  one  side  and  Virginia  on  the  other 
had  not  kept  them  in  awe,  they  would  have  joined  the 
British."  ^  This  opinion  was  affirmed  in  a  letter  to  Thomas 
McKean,  chief  justice  of  Pennsylvania,  sometime  pre- 
sident of  Congress,  and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  who  wrote  in  reply :  "  You  say  that  about 
one  third  of  the  people  of  the  colonies  were  against  the 
Revolution.  It  required  much  reflection,  before  I  could 
fix  my  opinion  on  this  subject ;  but  on  mature  delibera- 
tion I  conclude  you  are  right,  and  that  more  than  one 
third  of  influential  characters  were  against  it."  ^  In  subse- 

'  Works  of  John  Adams,  vol.  x,  p.  63.  The  letter  is  dated,  "Quincy,  31 
August,  1813." 

^  Adams's  Works,  vol.  x,  p.  110.  (Letter  to  James  Lloyd  dated,  "  Quincy, 
January,  1815.") 


290  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

quent  letters  (1780 )  he  speaks  of  the  Tories  as  constituting 
not  a  twentieth  of  the  population,  which  may  mean  that 
the  Tories  decreased  in  numbers  as  the  war  progressed. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  the  Tories  were  un- 
doubtedly more  numerous ;  it  would  be  no  exaggeration 
to  assume  that,  at  the  beginning,  in  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Delaware  one  third  of  the  population  were 
opposed  to  the  war ;  in  New  York,  Georgia,  and  the  Caro- 
linas,  two  fifths;  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  one  sixth/ 
Moses  Coit  Tyler ^  says:  "In  Virginia,  especially  after 
hostilities  began,  the  Tories  were  decidedly  less  in  number 
than  the  Whigs.  In  North  Carolina,  the  two  parties  were 
about  evenly  divided.  In  South  Carolina,  the  Tories  were 
the  numerous  party  ;  while  in  Georgia  their  majority  was 
so  great  that,  in  1781,  they  were  preparing  to  detach 
that  colony  from  the  general  movement  of  the  rebellion." 
A  Hessian  officer,^  writing  from  New  Hampshire,  estimated 
that  the  population  was  one  sixth  loyal,  one  sixth  neutral, 
and  two  thirds  rebel,  agreeing  with  the  estimate  of  Adams 
and  McKean. 

All  contemporary  accounts  and  sources  of  information 
seem  to  indicate  that  in  the  German  population  the  pro- 
portion of  Tories  was  by  no  means  as  great  as  the  aver- 
ages mentioned.  There  were  a  few  loyal  Germans  serving 
under  the  Hessian  colonel,  Knyphausen,  during  his  New 
Jersey  campaign,  but  they  would  by  no  means  represent 

*  Hanna,  The  Scotch-Irish,  or  the  Scotch  in  North  Britain,  North  Ireland, 
and  North  America,  vol.  i,  p.  84. 

^  American  Historical  Review,  vol.  i,p.  28,  "The  Loyalists  in  the  American 
Revolution  "  (pp.  24-45). 

^  He  wrote  from  Castle  Town,  New  Hampshire  (now  probably  Castleton, 
Vermont),  July  20,  1777.  The  style  of  the  letter  is  such  as  to  inspire  con- 
fidence in  the  writer's  statements.  Printed  in  Schlozer's  Briefwechsel,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  275-282.  Schlozer's  Briefwechsel,  1777-1782,  contains  many  letters  from 
Hessian  officers  serving  in  the  American  colonies  during  the  Revolution. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     291 

one  third  or  even  one  sixth  of  the  German  population. 
Benjamin  Franklin,  when  queried  before  the  English  Par- 
liament concerning  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Americans 
with  the  Stamp  Act,  was  asked  how  many  Germans  there 
were  in  Pennsylvania.  His  answer  was:  "About  one  third 
of  the  whole  population,  but  I  cannot  tell  with  certainty." 
Again  the  question  was  put  whether  a  part  of  them  had 
seen  service  in  Europe.  He  answered,  "Many,  as  well  in 
Europe  as  in  America."  When  asked  whether  they  were 
as  dissatisfied  with  the  Stamp  Tax  as  the  native  popula- 
tion, he  said:  "Yes,  even  more,  and  they  are  justified, 
because  in  many  cases  they  must  pay  double  for  their 
stamp  paper  and  parchments." 

The  German  newspaper  in  Philadelphia  called  the 
"  Staatsbote,"  published  by  Henry  Miller,  later  the  printer 
of  Congress,  was  one  of  the  papers  that  fanned  the  flames 
of  rebellion.^  In  the  conventions  held  in  Philadelphia  in 
June  and  July,  1774,  and  January,  1775,  to  adopt  meas- 
ures of  sympathy  and  union  with"  Massachusetts,  the  Ger- 
mans were  represented  by  Christopher  Ludwig,  Schlosser, 
Engel,  and  Hillegas;  by  Hubley,  Barge,  Rosz,  Ferree, 
Slough  (Schlauch),  Erwin,  Schultz,  Potts,  Kiichlein, 
Arndt,  Weitzel,  Hasenclever,  Melcher,  Wagner,  Graf, 
Kuhn,  Eichelberger,  Smyser,  Levan,  and  Gelir,  who  were 
residents  of  Philadelphia  and  of  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
man counties  of  Lancaster,  Berks,  Northampton,  North- 
umberland, York,  etc."  This  representation  shows  that  the 

*  His  paper  was  read  as  far  as  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  Heinrich  Ringer, 
at  Winchester,  and  Jacob  Nicolas  at  Peaked  Mountain,  Augusta  County, 
were  the  agents  of  the  paper.  The  edition  of  March  19,  1776,  contains  an 
appeal  to  the  Germans  beginning  :  "Remember  that  your  forefathers  immi- 
grated to  America  to  escape  bondage  and  to  enjoy  liberty."  Virginia  Maga- 
zine vol.  X,  pp.  45  ff. 

^  Cf.  Seidensticker,  Bilder  aus  der  deutsch-Pennsylvanischen  GescMchte, 
p.  259.  (New  York,  1886.) 


292  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

Germans  were  aggressive  patriots  at  the  very  beginning 
of  the  Revolutionary  movement. 

Among  the  merchants  of  Philadelphia  who  fixed  their 
signatures  to  the  document  bidding  them  to  refrain  from 
importing  English  goods,  there  were  the  Germans,  Kep- 
pele  (senior  and  junior),  Steinmetz,  Deschler,  Wister 
(Daniel  and  John).  "In  the  Valley  of  the  Blue  Ridge  the 
German  congregations,  quickened  by  the  preaching  of 
Miihlenberg,  were  eager  to  take  up  arms."^  Even  before 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  the  Germans  of  the  Valley  of 
Virginia  were  among  the  first  to  adopt  resolutions  which 
smacked  of  treason  to  the  British  king.  On  June  16, 
1774,  a  meeting  took  place  at  Woodstock,  Virginia,  in 
which  initial  revolutionary  steps  were  taken.  The  Rever- 
end Peter  Muhlenberg  was  chosen  moderator  of  the 
meetino",  and  afterwards  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
resolutions.  The  resolutions  were  bolder  than  public 
opinion  at  that  time  was  prepared  to  sanction.  The  fol- 
lowing extracts  show  the  spirit  pervading  them:  — 

That  we  will  pay  due  submission  to  such  acts  of  government 
as  His  Majesty  has  a  right  by  law  to  exercise  over  his  subjects, 
and  to  such  only. 

That  it  is  the  inherent  right  of  British  subjects  to  be  governed 
and  taxed  by  representatives  chosen  by  themselves  only,  and 
that  every  act  of  the  British  Parliament  respecting  the  inter- 
nal policy  of  America  is  a  dangerous  and  unconstitutional  inva- 
sion of  our  rights  and  privileges. 

That  the  enforcins:  the  execution  of  said  acts  of  Parliament 
by  a  military  power  will  have  a  necessary  tendency  to  cause  a 
civil  war,  thereby  dissolving  that  union,  which  has  so  long  hap- 
pily subsisted  between  the  mother  country  and  her  colonies; 

»  George  Bancroft,  History  of  the  United  States  of  A  merica,  from  the  Dis- 
covery of  the  Continent,  vol.  iv,  p.  318.  The  author's  last  revision.  (N.  Y. 
Appleton,  1884.) 


GEEMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     293 

and  that  we  will  most  heartily  and  unanimously  concur  with 
our  suffering  brethren  in  Boston  and  every  other  part  of  North 
America,  who  are  the  immediate  victims  of  tyranny,  in  promot- 
ing all  proper  measures  to  avert  such  dreadful  calamities,  to 
procure  redress  of  our  grievances,  and  to  secure  our  common 
liberties. 

The  lovers  of  liberty  closed  by  "pledging  themselves 
to  each  other,  to  our  country,"  and  promising  "  inviolably 
to  adhere  to  the  votes  of  this  day."  The  committee  of 
safety  and  correspondence  appointed  for  the  county  con- 
sisted of  Peter  Muhlenberg,  chairman,  Francis  Slaughter, 
Abraham  Bird,  T.  Beale,  J.  Tipton,  and  Abraham  Bow- 
man, at  least  half  of  whom  were  Germans.^ 

The  British  traveler  Smyth,^  while  in  Fredericktown, 
Maryland,  in  1775,  had  some  trouble  with  the  armed 
"  Associators."  He  had  been  invited  before  the  Revolu- 
tionary committee,  but  preferred  to  leave  town,  going 
by  way  of  Middletown  and  Funkstown  to  Hagerstown. 
Everywhere  he  found  Germans,  and  he  describes  in  a 
grotesque  manner,  how,  after  his  first  escape,  he  was 
seized  again.  "One  said,  ^Got  tamn  you,  how  darsht  you 
make  an  exshkape  from  this  honorable  committish?'  'Fer 
flucht  der  dyvel,'  cried  another,  'how  can  you  shtand  so 
shtyff  for  King  Shorsh  akainst  dish  Koontery?'  'Sacra- 
menter, '  roars  out  another,  ^dish  committish  will  make 

*  These  resolutions  are  printed  in  the  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x,  p.  46. 
The  editor  of  the  magazine  states  that  similar  resolutions  were  adopted  in 
meetings  in  Virginia,  as  follows  :  Fredericksburg,  June  1  ;  Prince  William 
County,  June  6  ;  Frederick  County,  June  8  ;  and  then  very  shortly  after 
occurred  the  meeting  at  Woodstock,  June  16,  1774.  The  proceedings  of  the 
meeting  are  published  in  full  in  the  Virginia  Gazette  for  August  4,  1774 
(Library  of  Congress).  The  spurious  Mecklenburg  (N.  C.)  declaration,  it 
was  claimed,  occurred  in  May,  1775  (one  year  later). 

^  Smyth,  A  Tour  in  the  United  States  of  America,  vol.  ii,  chapter  Ixv,  pp. 
274  S.  (London,  1784.) 


294  THE  GEEMAN  ELEMENT 

Shorsh  know  how  to  behave  himself ' ;  and  the  butcher 
exclaimed,  '  I  would  kill  all  de  English  tieves  as  soon  as 
Ich  would  kill  van  ox  or  van  cow.'"  Smyth's  experience, 
though  his  imitation  of  Pennsylvania  German  does  not 
quite  meet  the  rigorous  demands  of  modern  philology, 
proves  at  least  that  the  Frederick  County  Germans  were 
patriotic.  The  farmers  and  small  tradesmen  in  the  western 
counties  were  almost  without  exception  favorable  to  the 
Revolutionary  cause,  a  few  exceptions  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  What  matters  it  if  John  Brake,  an  old 
German  of  considerable  wealth  on  the  South  Fork  of  the 
South  Branch,  who  had  no  friends  but  his  gold-pieces, 
became  a  Tory  from  selfish  interests?  General  Morgan 
soon  took  Brake  prisoner  and  quartered  his  German 
sharpshooters  at  the  old  gentleman's  house,  to  live  on  the 
best  that  his  farm,  mill,  and  distillery  afforded.  A  few 
Germans  in  this  section,  who  had  become  Tories,  drawn 
over  by  the  Scotchman,  John  Claypole,  repented,  and  are 
known  to  have  fought  subsequently  against  Cornwallis  at 
Yorktown.^ 

In  North  and  South  Carolina,  where  the  Tories  in  many 
places  outnumbered  the  Revolutionists,  to  be  a  patriot 
meant  a  greater  risk  or  sacrifice.  Many  Germans  in  the 
central  or  western  districts  of  those  states  suffered  greatly 
from  Tory  raids.^  Among  the  few  Germans  loyal  to  the 
crown  probably  the  most  noted  was  the  Reverend  John 
Joachim  Zubly,  for  many  years  the  most  prominent  Re- 
formed minister  in  the  South.  He  was  educated  in  Switz- 
erland and  followed  his  father  to  America  in  1774.  In 
September,  1775,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Con- 

*   Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x,  p.  113. 

^  Cf.  Bernheim,  History  of  the  German  Settlements,  etc.,  in  North  and  South 
Carolina,  pp.  269-273. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     295 

tinental  Congress,  but  he  turned  Royalist,  was  expelled, 
and  lost  to  memory.^ 

Concerning  the  Germans  of  Georgia  we  can  say  with 
assurance  that  by  far  the  majority  of  them  were  patriotic, 
the  German  Tories  amounting  by  no  means  to  two  fifths 
of  the  German  population.^  When  in  1775  the  provincials 
assembled  in  Savannah,  to  adopt  measures  to  protect  the 
province  against  the  arbitrary  legislation  of  the  mother 
country,  St.  Matthew's  parish  was  represented  in  that  con- 
gress by  the  Salzburgers,  —  John  Stirk,  John  Adam 
Treutlen,  Jacob  Waldhauer,  John  Fler],  and  Christopher 
Cramer.  An  evidence  of  the  prominence  of  the  Salzburgers 
among  the  patriots  of  Georgia  was  the  election  of  John 
Adam  Treutlen  to  the  office  of  provincial  governor.  In 
his  youth  Treutlen  had  been  instructed  by  the  worthy 
minister  of  the  Salzburgers,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bolzius,  in 
Latin,  French,  English,  and  mathematics,  and  by  virtue 
of  his  broad  education  and  natural  abilities  he  became  the 
centre  of  influence  in  the  German  congregation.  He  was 
an  opponent  of  the  mischief-maker,  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Triebner,  and  the  most  ardent  supporter  of  the  minister 
Rabenhorst  in  the  church  quarrel  which  the  Reverend 
H.  M.  Muhlenberg  arbitrated  and  settled.  Among  his  own 
people  and  beyond  he  took  a  strong  initiative  for  the 
party  of  liberty.  In  a  commonwealth  where  there  was 
much  Toryism  and  neutrality  he  soon  became  the  leading 
patriot.  In  May,  1777,  the  first  legislative  body  of  the 
state  met  in  Savannah  and  under  the  new  constitution 
Treutlen  was  elected  the  first  governor.  In  the  following 
year  dictatorial  powers  were  conferred  upon  him  by  act 

*   Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  xi,  p.  392,  note. 

2  As  estimated  above,  two  fifths  to  one  half  the  population  of  Georgia 
were  Tories. 


296  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  the  Georgia  Council/  One  of  his  appointees,  Colonel 
Elbert,  took  possession  of  the  fortress  Frederica  in  April, 
1778,  a  brilliant  victory  whereby  two  English  warships 
and  a  large  amount  of  supplies  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
captors.  The  most  prominent  German  Tory  in  this  sec- 
tion, the  Reverend  Mr.  Triebner,  an  old  enemy  of  the  gov- 
ernor, welcomed  the  British  to  Savannah  and  advised  them 
to  garrison  Ebenezer.  The  home  and  farm  of  Treutlen 
were  made  a  special  object  of  vengeance,  his  movable 
property  was  confiscated,  and  his  dwelling  and  stores  were 
burned  to  the  ground.  He  fled  to  Elbert  County,  and 
though  fifty-three  years  of  age^  joined  the  army  of  Gen- 
eral Wayne,  and  served  throughout  the  war  as  quarter- 
master-general. Other  Salzburgers  prominent  were  Samuel 
Stirk,  rebel  secretary ;  William  Holsendorf  (Holzendorf), 
rebel  councilor;  John  Stork,  rebel  colonel;  and  many 
others  who  served  under  General  Wayne  in  the  war  for 
independence.  Among  those  notorious  on  the  royalist  side, 
for  marauding  parties,  were  the  Germans  Eischel  and 
Dasher,  whose  evil  work,  however,  was  counterbalanced 
by  the  military  services  of  the  sons  of  Frederick  Helfen- 
stein,  and  of  George  Wysche,  John  Schneider,  and  other 
"  proscribed  rebels." 

A  number  of  German  regiments  were  raised  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  war  for  service  wherever  needed.  Congress 
decided  on  May  22,  1776,  to  raise  a  German  regiment, 
consisting  of  four  companies  levied  in  Pennsylvania  and 
four  in  Maryland,  to  which,  by  resolution  of  July  9,  1777, 
was  added  a  ninth  company  recruited  from  Pennsylvania. 
The  officers  and  men  were  entirely  German  or  of  German 

1  Stevens's  History  of  Georgia,  vol.  ii,  pp.  300-301,  304. 
^  Treutlen  was  born,  in  1726,  at  Berchtesgaden,  in  the  Salzburg  dis- 
trict. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     297 

descent.^  The  colonel  of  the  regiment  was  originally  Nich- 
olas Haussegger,  who  was  succeeded  by  Ludwig  Weltner. 
The  regiment  was  engaged  in  Sullivan's  division  during 
the  New  Jersey  campaign  and  took  part  also  in  the  latter's 
campaign  against  the  Indians.  The  German  regiment 
served  also  to  protect  the  city  of  Philadelphia  against  the 
enemy  and  the  disaffected  during  Howe's  campaign  in  New 
Jersey;  subsequently  it  joined  Washington's  army,  taking 
part  in  the  battle  of  Trenton  that  so  revived  the  hopes  of 
the  patriotic  party.  The  regiment  took  part  also  in  the  bat- 
tles of  Princeton  and  Brandywine,  and  spent  the  winter 
of  1777-78  at  Valley  Forge,  suffering  privations  with  the 
rest  of  the  American  army. 

The  regiment  called  Armand's  Legion  was  originally 
recruited  by  Baron  von  Ottendorff  as  a  troop  of  light  in- 
fantry, but  on  account  of  the  need  of  well-disciplined 
cavalry,  it  was  changed  into  a  dragoon  corps.  Ottendorff 
was  from  Saxony  and  had  served  in  the  Seven  Years'  War 
under  Frederick  the  Great.  He  was  directed  by  Congress 
December  5,  1776,  to  raise  an  independent  corps  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  of  which  he  was  put  in  command  with 
the  rank  of  major.  His  command  was  filled  in  Pennsylvania 
and  remained  in  service  from  1777  to  1780,  when  it  was 
merged  into  Armand's  Legion,  while  Ottendorff  is  supposed 
to  have  returned  to  Europe.^  This  happened  after  the 
battle  of  Savannah,  in  which  Pulaski  suffered  death,  and 
in  which  Ottendorff 's  company  also  met  many  losses  in  the 

1  Cf .  Rosengarten,  pp.  100-101.  Also  Pennsylvania  in  the  Revolution,  1775- 
1783,  2  vols.  (Harrisburg,  1880.)  Edited  by  Linn  and  Eugle.  Full  lists  of 
officers  and  men  serving  in  Continental  forces  are  there  given.  For  a  list 
of  the  captains  and  lieutenants  see  Seidensticker,  pp.  263-264.  The  first,  third, 
fifth,  seventh,  and  ninth  companies  were  Pennsylvanians.  Maryland  deserves 
great  credit  for  furnishing  so  large  a  proportion,  four  ninths  of  the  regiment. 

^  Rosengarten,  pp.  103-104. 


298  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

attack.  Schott's  dragoons,  recruited  in  the  Pennsylvania- 
German  districts,  were  also  for  a  time  in  Armand's  Legion. 
The  regiment  did  gallant  service  in  the  South,  at  York- 
town,  and  at  the  siege  of  New  York.  Several  hundred 
names  of  officers  and  men  belonging  to  this  regiment  are 
given  in  "Der  deutsche  Pionier."^  The  same  source-book 
for  German-American  history  gives  the  names  of  hundreds 
of  soldiers  who  served  during  the  Revolution  in  the  Con- 
tinental regiments  i  to  xiii  of  Pennsylvania.^ 

One  of  the  interesting  facts  concerning  the  military  his- 
tory of  the  Revolution  is  that  Washington's  body-guard 
was  largely  made  up  of  Germans.  There  had  been  Tories, 
or  at  least  suspects,  in  the  first  body-guard  appointed,  and 
plots  were  revealed  by  which  the  person  of  the  commander- 
in-chief  was  to  be  seized.  On  the  advice  of  Washing-ton's 
private  secretary  and  adjutant.  Reed,  who  was  of  German 
descent,^  a  troop  was  formed  consisting  entirely  of  Germans, 
called  the  Independent  Troop  of  Horse,  and  placed  under 
the  command  of  Major  Barth.  Van  Heer,  a  Prussian,  who 
had  served  as  cavalry  lieutenant  under  Frederick  the  Great 
in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  Of  Washington's  good  opinion 
of  German  soldiers  we  find  a  proof  in  his  letter  to  the  pre- 
sident of  Congress,  dated  June  30,  1776  :  ^  ''  The  battalion 
of  Germans  which  Congress  has  ordered  to  be  raised  will 
be  a  corps  of  much  service,  and  I  am  hopeful  that  such  per- 

1  Vol.  viii,  pp.  450-456. 

'  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp.  133-142,  181-187,  275-282,  333-336 
(Seventh  Coiitineutal  Regiment  of  Pennsylvania,  formerly  the  Sixth  Bat- 
talion, Dr.  William  Irvine,  commander,  under  whom  served  Rose,  mentioned 
below),  496-499;  vol.  ix,  pp.  276-278,  329-333;  vol.  x,  pp.  158-161.  The 
lists  were  verified  by  comparison  with  the  statistics  of  the  Pension  Bureau  at 
Washington.  The  investigation  was  made  by  H.  A.  Rattermann,  editor  of 
Der  deutsche  Pionier. 

'  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vii,  p.  217. 

*  American  Archives,  series  ix,  vol.  vi,  p.  1142. 


GERMANS  DURING  THE  REVOLUTION     299 

sons  will  be  appointed  officers  as  will  complete  their  enlist- 
ment with  all  possible  expedition." 

Van  Heer  recruited  most  of  his  men  in  the  Pennsylvania 
German  counties,  Berks  and  Lancaster.  They  began  to 
serve  in  the  spring  of  1778,  and  were  honorably  discharged 
at  the  end  of  the  war,  twelve  of  them  serving  longer  than 
any  other  American  soldiers,  having  the  honor  of  escorting 
the  commander-in-chief  ta  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon. 
These  twelve  men  each  received  presents  of  arms,  accou- 
trements, and  a  horse,  as  we  learn  from  a  written  record 
in  the  possession  of  the  family  of  one  of  the  twelve,  Ludwig 
Boyer,  discharged  December  10,  1783.^  Washington's 
mounted  body-guard  consisted  of  fourteen  officers  and 
fifty-three  men,  nearly  all  Germans,"  —  exclusively  Ger- 
mans, according  to  the  testimony  of  Colonel  John  John- 
son, sometime  president  of  the  Historical  and  Philosophical 
Society  of  Ohio,  and  personal  friend  of  Washington.^  In 
the  pension  lists  of  1828  a  number  of  names  of  soldiers 
belonging  to  Van  Heer's  troop  are  given.  Boyer  was 
granted  a  pension,  one  hundred  pounds  annually ;  Jacob 
Fox  (Fuchs),  who  had  lost  his  discharge,  brought  as  wit- 
nesses two  former  comrades,  Burckhardt  and  Trischer, 

1  The  descendants  of  Boyer  lived  in  Piqua,  Ohio.  The  discharge  of  Boyer 
was  in  the  handwriting  of  Washington's  aide-de-camp,  David  Cobb.  Most  dis- 
charges were  printed  formulas.  A  facsimile  of  the  original  is  found  in  Der 
deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vii,  p.  469.  The  father  of  Ludwig  Boyer  (or  Beyer)  was 
a  Palatine  or  Rhine  Hessian,  who  landed  in  Philadelphia  in  1752  and  settled 
in  Berks  County. 

2  Rosengarten,  p.  139. 

'  Colonel  John  Johnson  was  by  birth  an  Irishman,  who  came  to  the  United 
States  after  the  Revolution.  He  seems  to  have  had  no  reason  for  a  prejudiced 
view.  His  acquaintance  with  Washington  and  distinguished  men  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary period  gives  his  statements  some  weight.  He  said  that  not  a  single 
officer  or  soldier  of  this  troop  understood  a  word  of  English,  and  that  it  was 
commanded  by  Major  Van  Heer,  a  Prussian.  For  a  discussion  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject, see  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vii,  pp.  215-221,  and  469^85  (Rattermann). 


300  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

who  both  swore  that  they  had  belonged  to  Van  Heer's 
corps  and  that  that  troop  was  the  bodj-guard  of  Wash- 
ington. 

As  representatives  of  two  classes  of  German  patriots, 
differing  as  to  origin  and  social  position,  but  one  in 
motive  and  enthusiasm,  there  may  be  selected  the  two 
men,  Peter  Miihlenberg  and  Christopher  Ludwig  (Lud- 
wick).  The  former,  born  in  America,  educated  in  Ger- 
many, the  eldest  son  of  the  patriarch  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  Henry  Melchior  Muhlenberg,  was  destined  to  hold 
high  offices  in  military  and  civil  affairs  ;  the  other,  born  in 
Germany,  without  the  advantages  of  scholarly  training, 
but  beaten  about  in  the  world  until  matured  and  rijjened, 
was  a  representative  of  the  sturdy  middle-class  element 
among  the  Germans,  that  sometimes  causes  amusement  by 
its  foreign  smack,  but  has  frequently  inspired  admiration 
for  its  old-fashioned  virtue  and  power. 

Peter  Muhlenberg  was  destined  by  his  father  for  the 
ministry,  and  was  sent  to  Halle  as  a  student  of  theology. 
But  there  flowed  in  Peter's  veins  the  blood  not  only  of 
the  ministerial  Henry  Melchior  Muhlenberg,  but  that  also 
of  the  adventure-loving  Conrad  Weiser.^  In  Muhlenberg's 
family  there  were  also  some  soldier  ancestors.  The  in- 
clinations of  Peter  therefore  swerved  between  the  serious 
purpose  of  the  preacher  and  the  danger-haunted  life  of 
the  soldier.  Being  born  under  a  lucky  star,  it  happened 
that  he  was  able  to  gratify  his  tastes  for  both  vocations. 
His  father  had  misgivings  when  the  young  man  preached 
his  first  sermon,  and  well  he  might,  for  Peter  had  not 
been  an  ideal  student,  —  but  the  elders  of  the  church 
grouped  about  his  father  afterwards,  congratulating  him 
upon  the  initial  achievement  of  his  son.  Peter  accepted 
^  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Conrad  Weiser. 


GEKMANS  DUEING  THE  EEVOLUTION     301 

a  call  in  1772  to  the  Lutheran  church  at  Woodstock,  in 
the  Shenandoah  Valley.  His  frank  and  manly  bearing 
made  friends  within  the  cono^reg-ation  and  without.  An 
intimacy  arose  with  Patrick  Henry  and  Colonel  George 
Washington.  With  the  former  he  laid  deep  plans  of 
sedition,  with  the  latter  he  shot  bucks  in  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains. 

Peter  Muhlenberg  was  made  the  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Safety  and  Correspondence  in  Dunmore  County, 
within  which  Woodstock  was  located.  In  the  state's  con- 
vention of  1774:  at  Williamsburg,  and  in  the  next  session 
at  Richmond  in  March,  1775,  he  supported  Patrick  Henry 
eloquently  and  gave  assurance  of  the  support  of  his  large 
constituency  in  the  Valley.  Patrick  Henry  renewed  his 
motion  of  arming  the  province  of  Virginia,  and  Miihlen- 
berg  seconded  him.  In  accordance  with  the  wishes  of 
Washington  and  Patrick  Henry,  Muhlenberg  was  put  in 
command  of  the  Eighth  Virginia  Regiment.  The  German- 
Americans,  Abraham  Bowman  and  Peter  Helfenstein,  were 
his  lieutenant-colonel  and  major  respectively.  Quite  typ- 
ical of  Peter  Muhlenberg  was  the  little  romance  connected 
with  his  last  sermon.  The  news  that  the  favorite  minister 
was  to  preach  his  last  sermon  brought  crowds  of  hearers 
from  far  and  near,  filling  not  only  the  church,  but  also 
the  churchyard  roundabout.  It  was  in  January,  1776, 
when  the  atmosphere  was  charged  with  potentialities.  At 
the  close  of  his  sermon  the  minister  spoke  of  the  duties 
we  owe  our  country,  saying  with  a  fervor  born  of  con- 
viction that  "  there  wag  a  time  for  preaching  and  praying, 
but  also  a  time  for  battle,  and  that  such  a  time  had  now 
arrived."  He  pronounced  the  benediction,  then  threw  off 
his  clerical  robe,  and  behold,  minister  no  more,  he  stood 
in  the  uniform  of  a  colonel  of  the  Continental  Army.  As 


302  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

he  slowly  descended  from  the  pulpit  the  drums  were  beaten 
outside  the  church,  for  the  mustering  of  soldiers  in  the 
cause  of  freedom.  Enthusiasm  blazed  up  spontaneously, 
carrying  men  away  to  a  step  before  which  they  had  long 
hesitated  and  trembled.  Three  hundred  recruits  were  at 
once  taken  into  the  regiment  of  Muhlenberg,  and  on  the 
following  day  the  numbers  increased  to  over  four  hun- 
dred. 

The  regiment  of  Miihlenberg  was  always  more  numer- 
ous than  others,  and  its  colonel  was  chosen  several  times 
to  restore  the  numbers  of  other  colonial  regiments.  His 
regiment  was  first  used  in  South  Carolina,  then  brought 
to  the  North.  On  February  21,  1777,  Congress  raised 
Colonel  Muhlenberg  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  in 
command  of  the  First,  Fifth,  Ninth,  and  Thirteenth  Vir- 
ginia regiments.  Muhlenberg's  and  Weedon's  (Wieden's) 
brigade  formed  General  Greene's  division,  distinguished 
for  bravery  and  discipline  in  the  battles  of  Brandywine 
and  Germantown.  At  Brandywine  Muhlenberg's  brigade 
was  used  by  General  Greene  in  his  famous  manoeuvre,  cov- 
ering the  retreat  of  the  American  army,  and  preventing 
its  annihilation  by  Cornwallis.  It  was  a  difficult  position 
to  hold,  against  picked  Hessian  troops  and  the  Guard 
regiments  of  the  British.  At  the  battle  of  Germantown 
Muhlenberg's  division  divided  the  right  wing  of  the  enemy 
in  a  brilliant  bayonet  attack;  the  errors  of  that  unfor- 
tunate battle  were  made  in  other  quarters.  The  regiment 
was  at  Valley  Forge  during  the  winter,  and  subsequently 
sustained  its  good  reputation  in  the  battle  of  Monmouth.* 

Christopher  Ludwig  was  an  aggressive  advocate  of  the 
Revolution.  From  the  very  first  he  maintained,  in  popular 
meetings,  that  no  compromise  measures  would  be  effective, 

*  Miihlenberg's  operations  in  the  South  will  be  mentioned  below. 


GERMANS  DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     303 

and  spoke  for  war  with  England  even  if  it  be  one  of  long 
duration.  When  Governor  Mifflin  made  a  motion  that  a 
collection  be  made  for  the  purchase  of  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion, and  several  voices  were  heard  in  opposition,  Ludwig 
rose  and  said  in  badly  accented  but  very  plain  English : 
"  Mr.  President,  I  am  of  course  only  a  poor  gingerbread 
baker,  but  write  me  down  for  two  hundred  pounds." 
Ludwig's  move  closed  the  debate  and  the  proposition  was 
adopted  unanimously.  In  the  summer  of  1776,  though 
fifty-five  years  of  age,  Ludwig  became  a  volunteer  in  the 
militia.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  the  soldier's  and 
sailor's  life,  for  he  had  served  against  the  Turks  in 
Austria,  had  been  in  the  army  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
then  with  the  English  in  the  East  Indies,  and  from  1745 
on,  he  had  been  for  seven  years  at  sea.  He  had  settled  in 
Philadelphia  since  1754  and  had  followed  the  trade  of  a 
baker,  which  he  had  learned  in  his  native  city  of  Giessen. 
He  was  tall  in  stature,  erect  in  carriage  and  of  command- 
ing presence,  so  that  he  was  nick-named  the  "  Governor 
of  Laetitia  Court"  (where  his  Philadelphia  bakery  was 
located).  He  impressed  his  fellow  men  at  once  with  his 
capacity  for  managing  affairs.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
"  Powder  Committee,"  as  we  know  from  his  advertisement 
for  a  man  "  skilled  in  the  art  of  manufacturing  powder." 
In  May,  1777,  Congress  appointed  Ludwig  superintendent 
of  bakers  and  director  of  baking  for  the  entire  army.^  It 
was  demanded  of  him  to  furnish  one  hundred  pounds  of 
bread  for  every  one  hundred  pounds  of  flour.  "  No,"  said 
he,  "  Christopher  Ludwig  does  not  wish  to  become  rich 
by  the  war.  He  has  enough.  Out  of  one  hundred  pounds 
of  flour  one  gets  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  pounds  of 

1  With  the  salary  of  seventy-five  dollars  a  month  and  a  daily  supply  of 
two  rations.  Two  rations  presumably  for  himself  and  his  wife. 


304  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

bread/  and  so  many  will  I  give."  His  predecessors, 
grafters  of  an  early  day,  had  always  given  themselves  the 
benefit  of  the  ignorance  of  the  legislators.  General  Wash- 
ington was  in  the  habit  of  referring  to  Ludwig  as  his 
"  honest  friend."  Meeting  difficulties  in  securino-  men  to 
help  him,  Ludwig  was  sent  to  Philadelphia  by  order  of 
the  commander-in-chief  to  apply  to  the  supreme  executive 
council  of  Pennsylvania  to  furnish  him  with  such  number 
of  journeymen  bakers  out  of  the  militia  as  he  might  want. 
One  of  Lud wig's  notable  achievements  was  the  prompt 
execution  of  Washington's  order,  immediately  after  the 
surrender  at  Yorktown,  to  bake  bread  for  the  army  of 
Cornwallis ;  Ludwig  baked  six  thousand  pounds  of  bread 
in  one  day.  In  the  company  of  officers  Ludwig  showed 
good  humor  and  wit.  A  beautiful  punch-bowl  of  porce- 
lain, which  he  had  brought  from  Canton,  China,  served 
the  officers  on  festive  occasions.  Washinofton  is  said  to 
have  drunk  many  a  toast  from  it,  and  was  fond  of  closing 
with  the  couplet,  "  Health  and  long  life,  to  Christopher 
Ludwig  and  his  wife." 

The  occupation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  British  inflicted 
heavy  losses  upon  Ludwig,  as  also  upon  the  printer  Miller 
and  other  "notorious"  rebels.^  Ludwig  recovered,  how- 
ever, after  the  war,  and  when  he  died  in  1809,  eighty- 
one  years  of  age,  he  left  several  bequests,  —  not  large,  to 
be  sure,  according  to  modern  standards,  but  very  well  be- 

*  The  added  water  increases  the  weight. 

^  The  printing-press  and  property  of  Heinrich  Miller  (printer  of  Congress) 
were  confiscated.  The  British  robbed  the  house  of  Jacob  Schreiner,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Revolutionary  Committee,  destroyed  the  sugar  refinery  of  David 
Schaffer  (senior  and  junior,  father-in-law  and  brother-in-law  respectively 
of  F.  A.  Muhlenberg),  plundered  the  house  of  the  Keverend  Mr.  Schlatter 
in  Chestnut  Hill,  and  damaged  the  property  of  the  following  Germans  : 
Keppele,  Kuhn,  Hogner,  Zautzinger,  Biirtch,  Sprogel,  Eckert,  Graff,  Gress- 
ler,  and  Knorr,  most  of  whom  were  well-to-do  merchants  of  Philadelphia. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE  REVOLUTION     305 

stowed.  His  benefactions  were  extended  to  the  Deutsche 
Gesellschaft,  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  to  two 
churches  that  were  to  award  the  income  to  poor  children. 
The  residue  of  his  estate,  three  thousand  pounds,  was 
given  to  found  a  free  school,  which  in  1872  was  named 
in  his  honor  Ludwick's  Institute.* 

The  German  settlements  in  the  Mohawk  Valley  and 
the  Schoharie  district  suffered  more  from  Indian  attacks 
during  the  Revolution  than  any  other  frontier  area.  They 
were  the  outposts  of  American  civilization  in  the  territory 
of  the  Six  Nations,  the  most  warlike  of  all  the  Indian 
tribes.  The  Six  Nations  had  for  the  most  part  been  friendly 
during  the  French  and  Indian  War  ;  now  the  English  had 
succeeded  in  persuading  them  that  their  king  across  the 
water  was  the  stronger  master,  and  in  consequence  they 
served  the  English.  An  additional  incentive  was  the  great 
opportunity  for  rewards  from  the  British,  combined  with 
the  certainty  of  plunder  from  the  colonists.  The  English 
at  one  time  placed  a  price  of  eight  dollars  upon  every 
scalp  brought  in.  The  rich  farms  and  fat  herds  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Schoharie  valleys  were  their  legitimate  prey, 
if  the  Indians  chose  to  join  in  the  war  against  the  Ameri- 
can colonies. 

The  family  of  Sir  WilHam  Johnson,  in  Tryon  County, 
who  had  been  so  influential  in  keeping  the  Indians  loyal 
during  the  French  and  Indian  War,  now  became  Tories, 
and  carried  the  Indians  of  their  section  with  them.  Sir 
William  Johnson  had  married  the  sister  of  the  Indian  chief 
Brant,  whom  he  had  given  a   good  school  education.^ 

1  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  thought  Ludwig  worthy  of  a  biography  by  his  own 
distinguished  pen:  Life  of  LudwicL  (Philadelphia,  1801;  reprinted,  1831.) 
Cf.  also  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp.  18-25  ;  and  Seidensticker,  Bilder 
aus  der  deutsch-pennsylvanischen  Geschichte,  pp.  261-262. 

'  Brant  was  seat  to  the  school  of  Dr.  Wheelock,  of  Lebanon,  Connecticut. 


306  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

Captain  Joseph  Brant  became  the  scourge  of  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  and  the  Schoharie  district.  He  was  superior  in 
intelligence  to  his  own  tribe  and  to  a  large  portion  of  the 
frontiersmen,  and  was  one  of  the  most  terrible  foes 
the  frontiersmen  at  any  time  or  place  had  the  ill  fortune 
to  encounter. 

The  Germans  of  the  Mohawk  Valley  could  not  wait 
until  they  might  receive  aid  from  the  New  York  state 
government.  The  Committee  of  Safety  in  Tryon  County 
organized  four  battahons  in  the  summer  of  1775.  All  four 
of  the  colonels  were  Germans,  Nicholas  Herkimer  (Herck- 
heimer),  commanding  the  first  battalion  (Canajoharie), 
Jacob  Klock  the  second  (Palatine  district),  Frederick 
Fisher  the  third  (Mohawk),  and  Hanjost  Herckheimer 
the  fourth  (German  Flats  and  Kingsland).^  The  whole 
force  was  put  under  the  command  of  Nicholas  Herkimer, 
who  by  pressure  and  persuasion  made  the  whole  district 
loyal  to  the  American  cause. 

In  the  middle  of  June,  1777,  General  Burgoyne  began 
his  march  from  Canada.  He  wished  to  cut  off  the  New 
England  states  from  the  rest  of  the  colonies  by  establish- 
ing a  line  from  Lake  Champlain  down  the  Hudson  to 
New  York.  He  was  to  be  aided  by  a  British  expedition 
up  the  Hudson  from  New  York.  Colonel  St.  Leger  was 
to  come  from  the  westward,  joining  Burgoyne  at  Albany, 
after  having  subdued  the  whole  of  the  Mohawk  Valley 
and  robbed  it  of  its  rich  harvests,  which  were  to  supply 
Burgoyne's  army  with  food.  St.  Leger  left  Montreal 
about  the  end  of  July,  and  on  the  third  of  August  ar- 

His  Indiau  name  was  Thay-en-da-ne-gea,  signifying  a  bundle  of  sticks,  the 
symbol  of  strength. 

'  Kapp,  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  im  Staate  New  York,  pp.  239  ff.  (New 
York,  1867),  furnishes  a  list  of  all  the  staff  and  company  officers;  almost 
all  were  Germans. 


GERMANS   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION     307 

rived  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  present  city  of  Rome, 
on  the  narrow  plateau  which  forms  the  watershed  between 
the  Hudson  and  St.  Lawrence. 

In  the  mean  time  General  Herkimer  had  summoned  to 
arms  all  the  men,  between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of  age, 
in  Tryon  County ;  even  the  members  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety  were  not  excused  from  service  in  the  ranks.  Four 
battalions,  about  eight  hundred  men,  under  the  command- 
ers named,  advanced  in  the  direction  of  Fort  Stanwix  (its 
location  was  near  what  is  now  Rome),  where  a  garrison 
had  been  stationed  under  Colonel  Gansevoort.  The  latter 
had  with  him  about  six  to  seven  hundred  men,  and  had 
put  the  fort  into  a  condition  of  defense.  General  St.  Leger, 
after  surrounding  Fort  Stanwix,  demanded  its  surrender, 
and  was  greatly  surprised  when  he  met  a  stern  refusal. 
The  militia  under  Herkimer  crossed  the  Mohawk  at  Fort 
Schuyler  (the  present  Utica),  and  on  the  evening  of  the 
fifth  of  August  encamped  near  the  confluence  of  the 
Oriska  and  the  Mohawk,  where  Oriskany  is  now  located. 
The  inexperienced  troops  were  aflame  with  eager  desire 
to  meet  the  enemy.  The  general,  who  had  experienced 
the  danglers  of  border  fio^htinoj  in  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  wisely  advised  caution,  and  wished  to  select  a  secure 
position  in  which  to  wait  for  an  attack.  Just  as  Daniel 
Boone's  advice  a  few  years  later  was  scorned  before  the 
disastrous  battle  of  the  Blue  Licks,*  and  the  Kentucky 
militia,  inflamed  by  Major  McGarry's  taunts,  advanced 
contrary  to  Boone's  wishes,  so  here  the  undisciplined 
bravado  of  the  raw  militia  could  not  be  restrained.  The 
brave  commander  was  denounced  as  a  coward  and  Tory 
by  his  brother  officers,  Fischer  (Visscher),  Cox,  and  Paris, 

1  Cf.  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  ii,  pp.  200-201.  The  battle 
was  fought  August  19,  1782. 


308  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

who  carried  the  eager  masses  with  them.  "I  am  placed  over 
you  as  a  father  and  guardian,"  said  Herkimer  calmly, 
"  and  I  will  not  lead  you  into  difficulties  from  which  I 
may  not  be  able  to  extricate  you."  But  the  confusion  and 
dissatisfaction  becoming  unbearable,  Herkimer  exclaimed, 
"If  you  will  have  it  so,  the  blood  be  upon  your  heads," 
and  yielding,  he  gave  the  command  to  move  on.^ 

Colonel  St.  Leger  had  received  information  concerning 
the  approach  of  General  Herkimer  and  preferred  to  meet 
him  in  the  field  rather  than  await  him.  He  detached 
eighty  men  of  Sir  John  Johnson's  Royal  Greens  under 
Major  Watts  (Sir  John's  brother-in-law),  and  the  entire 
body  of  Indians  under  Joseph  Brant,  the  whole  under  the 
command  of  Johnson,  to  intercept  Herkimer's  approach. 
On  the  advice  of  Brant  the  plan  followed  was  to  draw  the 
Americans  into  an  ambuscade.  A  position  was  selected, 
admirably  adapted  for  this  purpose,  about  two  miles  west 
from  Oriskany,  and  about  six  miles  distant  from  Fort 
Stanwix.  The  road  led  through  a  ravine,  and  sloped  to  a 
swamp  bottom,  that  was  made  passable  only  by  a  corduroy 
road,  constructed  for  the  benefit  of  supply-wagons  going 
to  Fort  Stanwix.  On  the  other  side  the  road  sloped  upward 
and  opened  toward  the  west.  The  country  on  either  side 
was  wooded  and  afforded  good  opportunities  for  observing 
the  corduroy  road.  About  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
Herkimer,  riding  at  the  head  of  his  column  on  a  white 
horse,  reached  the  ravine.  His  people  followed  him  slowly, 
going  into  the  ravine  and  deliberately  ascending  the  west- 
ern height  where  Herkimer  waited  for  them. 

The  small  force  had  in  part  ascended  the  western  slope, 

'  Cf.  W.  M.  Reid,  The  Mohawk  Valley,  Its  Legends  and  its  History  (The 
Knickerbocker  Press,  N.  Y.  1901),  p.  418.  A  good  description  of  the  battle 
follows,  pp.  419-429. 


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THK    HAND   TO    HAND   CONFLICT 


HKRKIMER    DIRFXTING    THE    ORISKANY    BATTLE 

BAS-RELIEFS   FROM  THE  ORISKANY  MONUMENT 


or' 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     309 

a  greater  part  was  still  in  the  ravine,  while  the  baggage- 
train  had  just  entered.  Only  the  rear  guard,  consisting  of 
Colonel  Fischer's  regiment,  was  still  on  the  eastern  slope. 
Suddenly  at  a  given  signal  the  Tories  and  Indians  broke 
forth  from  the  forests  and  thick  brushwood,  and  with  tre- 
mendous noise  and  hideous  yells  fell  upon  the  unsus- 
pecting militiamen.  As  Herkimer  had  predicted.  Colonel 
Fischer  and  his  men  were  seized  with  a  panic  and  made 
a  hasty  retreat,  deserting  the  baggage-train  and  the  rest 
of  the  force  of  Herkimer,  whom  they  had  so  loudly  de- 
nounced as  cowards. 

Though  taken  by  surprise,  Herkimer's  men  rallied  under 
his  noble  example,  and  after  firing  their  guns,  met  the 
onslauocht  of  the  Indians  with  their  knives  and  the  butts 
of  their  guns.  Noticing  that  the  firing  from  along  the 
eastern  slopes  of  the  ravine  was  irregular,  the  commander 
ordered  Colonel  Bellinger  and  the  soldiers  who  had  not 
yet  crossed  the  causeway  to  retake  the  hill.  Dashing 
through  the  hail  of  lead  on  both  flanks  the  stalwart  Pal- 
atine Germans  stormed  the  hillside,  firing  to  kill  as  they 
went.  Regaining  the  hilltop  they  formed  into  circular 
squads,  leaving  the  bottom  of  the  fatal  ravine  to  the  dead 
and  dying  and  the  prowling  savages  with  painted  skins, 
who  were  in  search  of  scalps  and  plunder.  It  was  about 
noon,  after  Herkimer  had  succeeded  in  getting  the  regi- 
ment stationed  in  some  sort  of  order  on  the  plateau,  when 
he  was  hit  below  the  knee  by  a  bullet  which  shattered  his 
leg  and  killed  his  horse.  Immediately  he  had  his  saddle 
brought  to  the  foot  of  a  large  beech  tree,  and  taking  his 
seat  upon  it,  directed  the  fight  from  that  position.  He 
lighted  his  pipe  and  continued  to  order  the  progress  of  the 
battle  with  firmness  and  composure,  until  the  final  retreat 
of  the  enemy.  The  tactics  on  either  side  varied,  in  forma- 


310  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

tion  and  style,  from  fighting  under  cover  to  bayonet  at- 
tacks in  mass.  The  Palatines  grouped  around  their  leader 
at  the  vantage-point  on  the  plateau,  and  resisted  every 
charge  with  dauntless  courage. 

The  day  had  been  hot  and  sultry,  the  distant  rumblings, 
indications  of  a  coming  storm,  had  not  been  heard  amid 
the  roar  of  battle.  So  intent  were  the  contestants  upon 
the  struggle  that  they  did  not  take  notice  of  the  thunder- 
storm vmtil  it  broke  forth  with  great  violence.  The  heavy 
downpour  of  rain,  the  swaying  of  the  trees  in  the  wind, 
and  the  great  darkness  arrested  the  work  of  death  for  about 
an  hour.  But  hardly  had  the  skies  become  clear  again 
when  the  rage  of  battle  once  more  rivaled  the  fury  of  the 
elements.  The  pause  was  of  advantage  to  the  Palatines. 
They  recovered  their  composure  completely,  had  kept  their 
powder  dry  and  reloaded  their  guns.  Herkimer  again 
showed  his  skill  in  tactics.  He  had  noticed  that  the  In- 
dians always  watched  the  tree  from  which  a  shot  came  and 
immediately  afterwards  leaped  toward  it  in  order  to  toma- 
hawk the  marksman  before  he  could  reload.  Herkimer 
now  placed  two  men  behind  each  tree.  As  soon  as  one  had 
shot  his  gun,  the  other  was  ready  with  his,  giving  the  first 
man  time  to  reload.  The  second  man  regularly  shot  the 
approaching  Indian.  In  this  manner  the  Indians  began  to 
suffer  severe  losses,  causing  their  courage  to  droop  and 
dwindle.  Heavy  punishment  the  Indians  could  never  en- 
dure, and  as  soon  as  it  occurred  they  became  disheartened. 

Johnson's  Royal  Greens  now  hastened  to  repair  the 
losses  sustained.  A  large  number  of  the  Royalists  were 
recognized  as  former  residents  of  the  Mohawk  Valley, 
former  neighbors  now  met  face  to  face  as  enemies.  The 
contest  grew  in  bitterness  and  stubbornness.  The  rage  of 
the  patriots  increased  to  white  heat  as  they  recalled  what 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     311 

they  had  suffered  from  Tory  treachery.  The  terrible  hand- 
to-hand  struofirle  lasted  lono^er  than  half  an  hour,  until  the 
Royalists  were  gradually  pushed  backward.  Colonel  Cox 
fell  during  this  close  fighting ;  his  clear  commanding 
voice  had  long  overtopped  the  hissing  of  the  rifle-balls, 
and  the  wild  battle-cry  of  the  Indians.  His  loss  was  bal- 
anced by  the  loss  of  Major  Watt  and  many  others  of 
the  Royal  Greens.  Suddenly  the  thundering  of  cannons 
was  heard  from  the  direction  of  Fort  Stanwix,  and  the 
British,  fearing  to  be  attacked  in  the  rear,  left  the  bat- 
tle-field in  possession  of  the  brave  peasants  of  Tryon 
County.  The  sortie  from  the  fort  was  due  to  a  plan  of 
Herkimer's.  He  had  sent  a  messenger  to  Gansevoort, 
directino;  him  to  attack  the  British  force  in  the  rear  at  the 
same  moment  when  he  himself  should  meet  the  enemy  in 
the  front.  The  messenger,  however,  did  not  arrive  at  the 
fort  until  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  having  with  diffi- 
culty eluded  capture.  Gansevoort  at  once  sent  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Willet  forward  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  men. 
They  attacked  the  camp  of  General  Johnson,  took  pos- 
session of  his  baggage  and  papers,  captured  five  British 
flags,  and  all  the  presents  which  had  been  intended  for 
the  Indians.  Hearing  that  Herkimer's  advance  had  been 
arrested,  they  retreated  to  the  fort  without  loss. 

The  effect  of  this  sortie  was  of  great  importance.  In 
the  first  place  it  decided  the  retreat  of  the  British  force, 
and  in  the  second  it  increased  the  discontent  of  the  In- 
dians. They  had  sustained  the  loss  of  a  large  number  of 
their  chiefs  and  best  warriors,  and  now,  on  returning  to 
camp,  they  found  themselves  deprived  of  all  their  comforts. 
Being  accustomed  to  go  into  battle  naked,  and  finding  no 
blankets,  they  suffered  severely  from  cold  during  the 
night,  and  even  the  tortures  of  theh*  prisoners  could  not 


312  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

comfort  them  in  their  misery.  To  revenge  themselves  they 
plundered  the  baggage  of  English  officers  and  took  pos- 
session of  the  boats  on  Wood  Creek.  The  battle  of  Oris- 
kany  thoroughly  discouraged  and  demoralized  the  Indians 
and  made  them  unfit  as  allies.  When  they  returned  to 
their  villages  they  mourned  the  loss  of  their  chiefs,  and 
whatever  presents  they  had  received  did  not  appear  to 
them  an  adequate  compensation. 

The  losses  of  the  Palatines  were  great  also,  to  be  sure. 
About  two  hundred,  one  fourth  of  the  number  that  had 
gone  into  battle,  had  been  slain  or  were  severely  wounded. 
Colonels  F.  Bellinger  and  Cox,  Majors  Eisenlord,  Klapp- 
sattel,  and  Van  Slyck,  Captain  Helmer,  and  Lieutenant 
Petrie  were  among  the  dead.  Most  of  the  subaltern  officers 
were  killed,  some  captured  with  Colonel  Bellinger  and 
Major  Frey.  There  was  hardly  a  house  in  the  Valley 
which  was  not  put  into  mourning  by  the  death  of  a  father, 
brother,  or  son. 

The  English  force  retreated  toward  Fort  Stanwix,  to 
which  they  laid  siege.  On  the  day  after  the  battle  Willet 
and  Stockwell  stole  through  the  besieging  force  and 
brought  news  to  General  Schuyler.  Arnold  was  sent  to 
the  assistance  of  Gansevoort  with  a  handful  of  res"ulars 
and  a  number  of  volunteers  collected  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley.  Extravagant  reports  being  spread  about  in  the 
camp  of  the  British,  concerning  the  size  of  the  reinforce- 
ments, a  panic  seized  the  camp  of  St.  Leger,  aggravated 
no  doubt  by  the  restlessness  of  the  Indian  allies.  On 
August  22,  1777,  St.  Leger  hastily  raised  the  siege, 
leaving  his  tents  and  ammunition  behind. 

The  most  severe  loss  to  the  patriot  cause  was  the  death 
of  General  Herkimer,  which  followed  shortly  after  the 
battle.    He   had    paid    little   attention    to    his   wounds, 


GERMANS   DURING  THE  REVOLUTION     313 

attending  to  the  business  of  reorganizing  the  militia, 
until  nine  days  after  the  battle,  when  his  leg  had  to  be 
amputated.  It  was  done  in  the  most  unskillful  manner, 
the  leg  being  cut  off  square  without  allowing  flesh  enough 
below  the  bone  to  cover  the  wound.  Colonel  Willet  called 
to  see  him  soon  after  the  operation  and  found  him  sitting 
up  in  his  bed,  cheerful  as  ever,  smoking  his  pipe.  A 
hemorrhage  followed,  and  toward  evening  of  the  same 
day  Herkimer  felt  that  his  end  was  near.  He  called  for 
his  Bible,  and  in  the  presence  of  his  family  read  the 
thirty-eighth  Psalm.  His  voice  gradually  grew  weaker, 
the  book  slipped  from  his  fingers,  and  death  overtook 
him.^  "It  was  Herkimer,"  said  George  Washington, 
"who  first  reversed  the  gloomy  scene"  of  the  Northern 
campaign.  The  pure-minded  hero  of  the  Mohawk  Valley 
"served  from  love  of  country,  not  for  reward.  He  did 
not  want  a  Continental  command  or  money."  "Before 
Congress^  had  decided  how  to  manifest  their  gratitude 
he  died  of  his  wound ;  and  they  decreed  him  a  monument. 
Gansevoort  was  rewarded  by  a  vote  of  thanks  and  a 
command ;  Willett,  by  public  praise  and  an  *  elegant  sword.' " 
The  results  of  the  battle  of  Oriskany  were  far  greater 
than  the  small  number  of  men  engaged  might  indicate. 
Had  not  the  Palatines  of  the  Mohawk  Valley  stopped  the 
advance  of  St.  Leger,  the  rich  harvests  of  their  farms 
would  have  been  used  to  feed  the  army  of  Burgoyne. 
St.  Leger's  auxiliary  forces,  with    the  Mohawk   Valley 

1  Nicholas  Herkimer  (correctly  spelled  Nikolaus  Herckheimer),  though 
twice  married,  had  no  children.  He  was  very  wealthy  and  left  his  estate  to 
his  relatives,  who  were  numerous  and  influential  in  the  valley.  In  the  gen- 
ealogical work  of  P.  S.  Cowen,  The  Herkimers  and  Schuylers,  an  historical 
sketch  of  the  two  families  with  genealogies,  etc.,  the  descendants  of  George 
Herkimer  (the  ancestor  who  arrived  in  1721  from  the  Palatinate)  are 
enumerated. 

^  Bancroft,  vol.  v,  p.  170. 


314  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

accessible  to  them,  would  probably  have  prevented  Biir- 
goyne's  surrender.  The  other  far-reaching  result  was  the 
effect  the  battle  had  on  the  Indians.  They  had  not  ex- 
pected such  obstinate  resistance  nor  such  severe  losses. 
They  grew  discontented  with  their  allies,  the  British, 
and  the  latter  considered  their  Indian  allies  a  failure. 
Official  information  went  home  to  the  effect  that  the  red 
men  "  treacherously  committed  ravages  upon  their  friends ; 
they  could  not  be  controlled ;  they  killed  their  captives ; 
that  there  was  infinite  difficulty  to  manage  them;  that 
they  grew  more  and  more  unreasonable  and  importun- 
ate.'" 

During  the  whole  of  1777  and  until  the  summer  of  1778, 
the  Valley  of  the  Mohawk  was  not  troubled  by  the  In- 
dians and  Tories.  The  farmers  could  peacefully  till  their 
fields  and  bring  in  their  harvests.  But  their  repose  and 
unpreparedness  invited  new  troubles.  The  numbers  in  the 
militia  companies  had  shrunk  since  the  battle  of  Oriskany 
from  nine  to  seven  companies.  Fort  Stanwix  lay  thirty 
miles  distant  from  the  last  German  settlements,  so  that  it 
could  easily  be  passed  by  small  war-parties.  An  enemy  like 
Joseph  Brant,  the  Mohawk  chieftain,  was  quick  to  see  the 
defenseless  condition  of  the  Valley  and  arouse  in  his  war- 
riors their  natural  lust  for  booty.  Even  when  subsequently 
Fort  Stanwix  was  given  up,  and  the  main  defensive 
strength  was  placed  in  Fort  Dayton  (the  present  Her- 
kimer), Brant,  who  knew  every  trail  and  opening  in  the 
Valley,  could  easily  pass  in  and  out  as  he  pleased.  The 
Mohawk  chief  opened  hostilities  in  1778,  attacking  the 
small  settlement  of  Andrustown,  in  the  southeastern  part 
of  present  Herkimer  County.  Four  men  were  killed,  others 
led  off  captive.      The  inhabitants  of    the  German  Flats 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  v,  p.  170. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     315 

started  in  pursuit,  but  succeeded  only  in  taking  revenge 
upon  a  Tory  friend  of  Brant.  The  next  expedition,  more 
ambitious,  was  directed  against  the  German  Flats,  pro- 
tected on  the  north  side  by  Fort  Dayton  and  on  the  south 
by  Fort  Herkimer.  The  German  Flats  were  at  that  time 
inhabited  by  about  one  thousand  Palatines,  men,  women, 
and  children.  They  were  no  match,  however,  for  the  large 
band  of  Tories  and  Indians  mustered  by  Brant.  The  set- 
tlers had  just  gathered  in  their  harvests,  an  opportune  mo- 
ment chosen  by  Brant  for  his  attack.  Three  of  the  four 
messenofers  whom  the  Germans  had  stationed  as  scouts 
were  killed,  and  only  one,  Helmer,  brought  the  news  of 
Brant's  approach.  The  attack  was  so  sudden  that  the  set- 
tlers could  only  retreat  hastily  to  their  forts,  leaving  their 
possessions  a  prey  to  the  marauders.  Sixty-three  houses, 
seventy-five  barns,  three  grist-mills,  and  two  saw-mills  with 
their  contents  were  set  on  fire  by  the  invaders,  who  drove 
off  with  them  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  horses,  two 
hundred  and  twenty-nine  head  of  cattle,  two  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  sheep,  and  ninety-three  oxen.  Brant  did  not 
attack  the  forts,  and  escaped  as  suddenly  as  he  had  come, 
eludino-  the  three  to  four  hundred  soldiers  who  started  in 
pursuit.  This  story  of  sudden  attack,  robbery,  and  escape 
was  repeated  month  after  month  and  year  after  year  along 
the  whole  frontier  of  New  York.  No  help  was  received  of  an 
effective  kind  until  the  punitive  expedition  under  Sullivan 
devastated  the  villages  of  the  Six  Nations.  This  happened 
in  1779  after  the  Wyoming  massacre*  (July  3,  1778)  in 

1  One  of  the  German  settlers  of  Wyoming  County  was  Judge  Matthew 
Hollenbaeh.  .  He  refused  offers  of  British  agents  to  play  the  traitor,  and 
joined  the  patriot  army  as  lieutenant  in  New  Jersey.  He  was  very  success- 
ful in  getting  recruits  from  the  "Wyoming  Valley.  At  the  time  of  the  mas- 
sacre of  the  Wyoming  settlers  Hollenbaeh  suffered  severe  property  losses. 
Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  pp.  262  ff. 


316  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Pennsylvania,  and  that  of  Cherry  Valley  (December  10, 
1778)  in  Otsego  County,  New  York.  In  both  of  these  mas- 
sacres the  German  settlers  suffered  with  the  rest/  It  would 
be  wearisome  to  rehearse  the  agonizing  details  of  border 
warfare  on  the  Mohawk.^  A  striking  proof  of  the  mon- 
strous cruelty  of  the  Indians  at  this  time,  and  of  the  stoic 
sufferings  of  the  frontier  settlers  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  is  furnished  by  the  following  inventory  of  scalps 
taken  by  the  Seneca  Indians,  which  accidentally  fell  into 
American  hands.^  There  were  eight  items  as  follows :  Lot 
1,  forty-three  scalps  of  soldiers  of  Congress  killed  in  battle, 
also  sixty-two  scalps  of  farmers  who  had  been  killed  in 
their  houses;  lot  2,  ninety-eight  scalps  of  farmers  killed 
in  their  houses  surprised  by  day,  not  by  night  as  the  first 
lot.  The  red  color  applied  to  the  hoops  of  wood,  which  were 
used  to  stretch  the  scalp,  indicated  the  difference ;  lot  3  con- 
tained ninety-seven  scalps  of  farmers  killed  in  their  fields, 
different  colors  denoting  whether  killed  by  tomahawk  or 
rifle-ball;  lot  4  contained  one  hundred  and  two  scalps  of 
farmers,  most  of  them  young  men  ;  lot  5  contained  eighty- 
eight  scalps  of  women,  those  with  blue  hoops  cut  from  the 
heads  of  mothers;  lot  6  contained  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
three  scalps  of  boys  of  different  ages  killed  with  clubs 
or  hatchets,  some  with  knives  or  bullets;  lot  7  containeH 
two  hundred  and  eleven  scalps  of  girls,  large  and  small ; 
and  lot  8,  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  scalps  of  various 

*  In  1769  there  were  about  forty  or  fifty  families,  mostly  of  those  called 
Scotch-Irish,  and  as  many  more  in  the  vicinity  consisting  of  Germans  and 
others.  See  ''Fout  Great  B^ivers,"  the  Journal  of  Richard  Smith,  1769.  Edited 
by  F.  W.  Halsey.  (New  York:  Scribner's  Sons,  1906.) 

2  Kapp,  Geschichte  der  Deulschen  im  Staate  Neiv  York,  chap.xii,  pp.  255-279, 
gives  a  very  good  account  of  this  terrible  struggle,  basing  it  upon  authentic 
records. 

8  Kapp,  supra,  pp.  276-279.  Based  on  Campbell's  Annals  ofTryon  County, 
pp.  67-70  (appendix). 


GERMANS   DURING  THE  REVOLUTION     317 

kinds,  among  them  twenty-nine  babes'  scalps  carefully 
stretched  on  small  white  hoops.  The  entire  bundle,  includ- 
ing the  total  of  1062  scalps,  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  New 
England  expedition  against  the  Indians,  and  a  prayer  was 
found,  accompanying  the  inventory,  addressed  to  the  Brit- 
ish governor  (Haldimand) :  "Father,  we  wish  that  you  send 
these  scalps  to  the  Great  King  that  he  may  look  at  them 
and  be  refreshed  at  their  sight  —  recognize  our  fidelity  and 
be  convinced  that  his  presents  have  not  been  bestowed 
upon  a  thankless  people."  The  scalps  represented  the 
work  of  the  three  years  preceding  February,  1782,  and 
were  taken  from  the  frontier  settlers  of  New  England, 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia.^ 

Among  the  numerous  stories  of  heroism  on  the  frontier 
there  is  none  more  memorable  than  that  told  of  Joliann 
Christian  Schell.  He  lived  with  his  wife  and  six  sons  about 
three  miles  to  tlie  northeast  of  Fort  Dayton,  in  what  was 
called  Schell's  Bush.  It  was  in  August,  1781,  when  most 
settlers  had  retreated  for  safety  to  the  forts,  or  to  more 
easterly  settlements.  He  decided  to  breast  the  storm,  rely- 
ing upon  his  sure  eye  and  brave  arm.  Schell's  blockhouse 
was  strong,  well  built,  and  well  adapted  for  defense 
against  ordinary  attacks.  His  house  was  stored  with  wea- 
pons and  ammunition.  He  was  at  work  in  the  field  with 
his  sons  one  day  when  the  enemy  appeared.  The  two 
youngest  sons,  twins  eight  years  of  age,  could  not  follow 
their  father  and  elder  brothers  fast  enough,  were  taken 
captive,  and  dragged  o£P  to  Canada.  It  was  two  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  when  about  forty-eight  Indians  and  sixteen 
Tories  attacked  the  house.  Their  leader  was  Donald  Mac- 

1  Cf.  Kapp,  p.  278.  The  explanatory  letter  was  written  by  James  Craw- 
ford (spelled  Craufurd),  January  3,  1782,  from  Tioga,  seeming  to  indicate 
that  most  of  the  scalps  came  from  the  New  York  frontier. 


318  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Donald.  While  Schell  and  his  four  sons  shot  off  their 
rifles,  his  wife  reloaded  them.  Almost  every  shot  hit  its 
mark,  but  the  enemy  were  so  numerous  as  not  to  feel 
their  losses.  Finally  MacDonald  himself  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  door,  which  he  tried  to  pry  open  with  a 
lever.  During  the  attempt  he  was  shot  in  the  leg. 
Quick  as  a  flash  Schell  unbolted  the  door  and  pulled  the 
wounded  captain  into  his  house.  This  success  rescued  the 
besieged  from  the  danger  of  fire,  for  MacDonald  would  in 
such  an  event  have  been  burned  also.  MacDonald's  ammu- 
nition also  fell  into  the  hands  of  Schell,  which  was  fortun- 
ate, for  he  had  only  a  few  shots  left.  The  last  effort  of  the 
enemy  having  failed,  the  brave  family  were  given  a  re- 
spite from  their  bloody  labors.  While  father  and  sons  were 
getting  their  rifles  ready  for  another  attack,  the  mother 
began  to  sing  the  battle  hymn  of  the  Reformation,  "A 
Mighty  Fortress  is  our  God."  The  men  fell  in  and 
Luther's  martial  hymn  echoed  through  the  woods  with 
tremendous  power.  The  words — 

"  Uud  wenn  die  Welt  voll  Teufel  war, 
Und  wollt  uns  gar  verschlingen, 
So  fiirchten  wir  uns  niclit  so  sebr, 
Es  muss  uns  doch  gelingeu!  "  — 

inspired  them  to  their  last  great  effort.  The  Tories  and 
Indians  now  pushed  some  of  their  guns  through  the  shot- 
holes  of  the  house,  at  a  moment  when  the  men  had  with- 
drawn to  load.  The  courageous  mother,  seeing  the  danger, 
seized  an  axe  and  struck  in  upon  the  guns,  bending  their 
bores,  and  sfiving:  her  men  time  to  reload.  Darkness  soon 
set  in,  and  the  besieged  family  sang  with  lusty  voices,  as 
if  they  were  confident  relief  were  coming  from  the  neigh- 
boring Fort  Dayton.  The  attacking  party,  not  being  able 
to  see  through  the  woods,  and  discouraged  by  the  loss  of 


GEEMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     319 

their  leader,  withdrew  into  the  forest,  taking  with  them 
the  two  youngest  sons  of  Schell.  During  the  night  the 
latter  with  his  family  wisely  withdrew  to  Fort  Dayton. 
The  next  morning  MacDonald  was  brought  into  the  fort 
and  remained  a  hostage  for  the  two  sons.  This  cour- 
ageous defense,  with  its  inspiring  singing,  stands  out 
as  one  of  the  bright  spots  in  the  long  tale  of  suffering 
which  the  Mohawk  settlers  were  called  upon  to  endure. 
Not  always  was  bravery  so  well  rewarded.  Even  Schell 
himself,  a  year  later,  died  from  the  effects  of  a  wound  re- 
ceived from  another  marauding  party  of  Indians. 

As  a  result  of  the  constant  border  fighting,  the  Pal- 
atines of  the  Mohawk  and  Schoharie  sections  became  skill- 
ful in  the  methods  of  Indian  warfare.^  Individuals  who 
gained  a  reputation  throughout  the  state  for  their  prow- 
ess as  Indian  fighters  and  hunters  were  Johann  Adam 
Hartman,  Timothy  Murphy,  Nicholas  Stoner,  and  Nathan- 
iel Foster.  Hartman  was  born  in  1743  at  Edenkoben,  in 
the  Palatinate.  There,  when  arrested  for  poaching,  giant 
that  he  was,  he  struck  down  the  officers  that  apprehended 
him  and  fled  to  America.  Hunter  and  trapper,  best  shot 
of  the  Mohawk  Valley,  he  became  the  most  fearless  of  the 
Indian  fighters  at  the  opening  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
He  was  looked  upon  as  the  defender  of  the  settlements, 
and  thoufrh  without  house  and  home  himself,  he  was  wel- 
come  everywhere.  The  lonely  farmer  knew  that  when  Hans 
Adam  (Hartman)  was  around,  lie  could  work  in  the  fields 
without  danger,  mothers  could  do  their  housework  with- 

1  Cf.  JephthaR.  Simms,  History  of  Schoharie  County  and  Border  Wars  of 
New  York,  etc.  (Albany,  1845.)  Also  F.  Kapp,  Die  Deutschen  im  Staate  New 
York,  chap.  12,  "Fur  Haus  und  Hof,"  pp.  255-279.  Also  Jephtha  R.  Simms, 
Trappers  of  New  York,  or  a  Biography  of  Nicholas  Stoner  and  Nathaniel 
Foster,  together  with  anecdotes  of  other  celebrated  hunters,  and  some  account  of 
Sir  William  Johnson  and  his  style  of  life.  (Albany,  1850.) 


320  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

out  anxiety,  and  children  play  unharmed  before  the  block- 
house. If  danger  approached,  the  crack  of  Hans  Adam's 
rifle  would  give  warning,  his  unerring  eye  and  sinewy 
arm  afforded  protection.  True,  he  was  not  of  the  law- 
abiding  sort,  but  the  cause  of  the  settler  was  a  law  unto 
him.  He  died  a  cripple  at  the  great  age  of  ninety-two. 

Timothy  Murphy,  no  doubt  an  Irishman,  was  a  bold 
spirit  concerned  in  every  daring  undertaking.  He  proved 
his  character  even  in  his  wooing,  for  he  eloped  with  the 
only  daughter  of  the  wealthy  Schoharie  farmer,  J.  Fick 
(or  Feeck) .  Murphy  was  then  a  soldier  in  the  Revolution- 
ary army,  and  receiving  very  good  reports  from  Murphy's 
superiors,  the  wealthy  German  father-in-law  finally  ac- 
cepted a  penniless  son-in-law  and  made  a  stable  citizen  of 
him.  Intermarriag-e  between  the  Germans  and  Irish  was 
of  frequent  occurrence  on  the  border,  each  nationality 
showing  reluctance  at  first,  but  soon  yielding  gracefully 
to  the  inevitable. 

The  struggle  for  liberty  in  the  American  colonies  at- 
tracted soldiers  from  foreign  lands,  some  of  them  adven- 
turers, who  proved  troublesome  to  the  commander-in-chief 
and  Congress,  but  others  again  of  an  entirely  different 
stamp.  They  had  served  in  European  wars,  and  through 
their  experience  added  just  that  element  of  discipline  and 
self-confidence  which  was  necessary  to  make  the  military 
struofo-le  successful.  Of  all  the  distiniruished  foreisTners 
who  aided  the  American  cause,  none  did  more  real  service 
than  Baron  Steuben,  the  drill-master  of  the  American 
forces.^    In  the  words  of  Hamilton,  quoted  by  Bancroft : 

•  The  standard  biography  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm  Freiherr  von  Steuben 
(1730-94)  is  by  Friedrich  Kapp,  entitled  :  Leben  des  amerikanischen  Gen- 
erals Fried.  Wilh.  v.  Steuben.  (Berlin,  1858.)  A  translation  was  published  in 
New  York  (Mason  Brothers,  1859).  Another  biography  was  published  by 
Francis  Bowen,  The  Life  of  Baron  Steuben,  in  Sparks's  Library  of  American 


GERMANS   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION     321 

"  He  benefited  the  country  of  his  adoption  by  introducing 
into  the  army  a  regular  formation  and  exact  discipline, 
and  by  establishing  a  spirit  of  order  and  economy  in  the 
interior  administration  of  the  regiments."  ^  Baron  von 
Steuben,  born  at  Magdeburg,  Prussia,  belonged  to  an 
ancient  and  distinguished  family,  and  following  good 
traditions  he  became  a  soldier.  He  fought  in  the  war  of 
the  Austrian  Succession,  and  during  the  Seven  Years' 
War  distino-uished  himself  at  Rossbach.  He  became  an 
aide  of  Frederick  and  was  a  favorite  pupil  of  the  great 
general.  After  the  war  he  held  a  lucrative  position,  but 
was  not  satisfied  with  inactivity.  When  on  a  visit  to  Paris 
the  French  secretary  of  war,  Saint-Germain,  spoke  to  him 
of  a  glorious  opportunity  existing  in  America,  that  of  in- 
troducing Prussian  military  discipline  into  the  raw  Ameri- 
can militia.  Benjamin  Franklin,  whom  Steuben  met  at 
Paris,  made  no  promises,  but  friends  in  France  strongly 
advised  Steuben  to  undertake  the  venture.  Steuben  soon 
came  to  a  favorable  decision.  He  gave  up  his  assured 
and  comfortable  position  at  home,  asking  the  king  of 
Prussia  to  transfer  his  income,  yielding  him  4600  livres 
annually,  to  his  nephew  the  Baron  von  Canitz. 

It  was  a  difficult  matter  for  Steuben  to  determine  in 
what  capacity  to  enter  the  American  army,  but  he  settled 
the  question  by  offering  his  services  as  a  volunteer,  ready 
to  perform  any  duty  which  the  commander-in-chief  might 
assign  him.  Commissions  for  his  aides  and  the  payment 
of  his  actual  expenses  were  the  only  conditions  stipulated 
for,  leaving  the  question  of  ultimate  compensation  to  be 

Biography,  vol.  ix.  (1838.)  C£.  also  G.  W.  Greene,  The  German  Element  in  the 
War  of  American  Independence.  (New  York,  1876.)  The  latter  book  contains 
a  sketch  of  Steuben,  Kalb,  and  the  Hessians,  based  on  the  three  works  of 
Kapp  on  the  same  subjects. 

^  Bancroft,  vol.  v,  p.  220;  quotes  Hamilton's  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  229. 


322  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

decided  by  the  success  or  failure  of  the  struggle.  The 
Continental  Congress  was  then  in  session  at  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, whither  Steuben  repaired  with  his  letters  from 
Franklin,  Saint-Germain,  and  others.  General  Gates,  who 
was  then  intriguing  against  Washington,  oppressed  the 
newcomer  with  civilities,  but  Steuben,  with  keen  insight 
into  human  character,  refused  his  dangerous  hospitality. 
Steuben's  offer  was  accepted,  and  he  was  sent  to  Washing- 
ton at  Valley  Forge.  On  his  way  he  passed  through  Lan- 
caster County,  and  was  greeted  with  ovations  throughout 
the  German  farming  country.  At  Valley  Forge  Washing- 
ton received  him  in  accordance  with  his  rank  and  experience 
as  a  soldier,  and  by  these  outward  marks  of  respect  at 
once  installed  him  in  the  high  position  of  authority  which 
the  general-in-chief  wished  to  establish  for  the  army's 
schoolmaster. 

At  no  time  was  the  condition  of  the  army  at  a  lower 
ebb,  not  only  through  lack  of  supplies  and  equipment, 
but  also  through  the  absence  of  discipline  and  military 
spirit.  Through  desertion  and  disease  the  original  force 
of  seventeen  thousand  had  dwindled  down  to  a  little 
more  than  five  thousand  men  who  could  be  called  out  for 
duty.  Even  these  were  poorly  armed,  and  clothed  in  rags. 
Yet  there  were  capabilities  in  these  men  which  the  trained 
eye  of  Steuben  recognized.  After  the  intriguing  and  in- 
capable Conway  had  been  removed  from  the  inspector- 
generalship,  Steuben  received  a  free  hand.  With  the 
assistance  of  Greene,  Hamilton,  and  Laurens,  and  the 
French  aides  which  he  had  brought  with  him,  Steuben's 
first  plan  was  to  institute  a  system  of  inspectorship.  He 
drafted  from  the  line  one  hundred  and  twenty  men  to 
form  a  military  school.  He  drilled  them  twice  a  day  and 
frequently  took  a  musket  into  his  own  hands,  showing 


BARON  VON  STEUBEN 


tlTRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  Of  lUJNOIS 


GERMANS   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION     323 

them  how  he  wished  them  to  handle  it.  At  every  drill  his 
several  inspectors  were  required  to  be  present,  and  doubt- 
less many  officers  were  present  without  requisition.  "  la 
a  fortnight,"  said  Steuben,  "  my  company  knew  perfectly 
well  how  to  bear  arms  and  had  a  military  air,  knew  how 
to  march,  and  to  form  in  column,  to  deploy  and  execute 
some  little  manoeuvres  with  excellent  precision."  Steuben 
showed  his  superiority  by  not  making  too  much  of  the 
manual  exercises.  He  was  no  mere  martinet.  Very  soon 
he  passed  to  manoeuvring  and  thereby  really  interested  the 
men.  He  studied  the  capacities  of  the  militia  before  him 
and  adapted  his  rigid  discipline  to  the  circumstances. 
Every  scholar  of  his  school  became  an  apostle  of  reform. 
Those  who  looked  on  admired  and  longed  to  be  per- 
mitted to  share  in  the  lessons.  Battalions  came  next,  then 
brigades,  and  then  divisions.  Within  a  month  the  Ameri- 
can troops,  for  the  first  time  since  the  opening  of  the  war, 
were  able  to  execute  the  manoeuvres  of  a  regular  army. 
On  the  fifth  of  May  Steuben  was  appointed  by  Congress 
inspector-general  with  the  rank  and  pay  of  major-general. 
A  reform  in  drill  was  but  a  small  part  of  the  real  work 
to  be  done.  The  whole  organization  of  the  army  required 
reform  in  all  its  parts.  The  necessity  of  internal  adminis- 
tration of  a  regiment  and  a  company  was  then  entirely 
unknown.  The  number  of  men  in  a  regiment  or  company 
had  been  fixed  by  Congress,  but  there  were  some  who 
were  three  months'  men,  some  six,  some  nine.  They  were 
constantly  coming  and  going,  and  when  they  went  they 
commonly  took  their  rifles  with  them,  so  that  Congress 
had  to  buy  thousands  of  new  rifles  every  year.  Sometimes 
a  regiment  was  stronger  than  a  brigade,  sometimes  it 
contained  but  thirty  men.  The  men  were  scattered  about 
everywhere  and  frequently  they  were  drawing  pay  long 


324  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

after  thej  had  left  the  ranks.  Leaves  of  absence  and  dis- 
missals were  given  out  promiscuously.  All  of  these  abuses 
had  to  be  corrected,  and  exact  records  of  every  detail 
were  now  instituted.  In  the  inspections  there  was  no  tri- 
fling, no  hurrying  over  details.  "Every  man  not  present 
was  to  be  accounted  for;  if  in  camp,  sick  or  well,  he  was 
produced  or  visited;  every  musket  was  handled  and 
searched,  cartridge-boxes  were  opened ;  even  the  flints  and 
cartridges  counted  ;  knapsacks  were  unslung  and  every 
article  of  clothing  was  spread  on  the  soldier's  blanket  and 
tested  by  his  little  book."  It  took  little  to  move  Steuben's 
anger ;  undue  delay,  hesitation,  were  sure  to  do  it,  and 
out  came  a  storm  of  oaths,  German  first,  then  French, 
and  then  both,  ludicrously  mingled ;  when  the  stock  was 
exhausted,  turning  to  his  aide  he  would  say,  "My  dear 
Walker,"  or  "  My  dear  Duponceau,  come  and  swear  for 
me  in  English.  These  fellows  will  not  do  what  I  bid  them." 
The  sonorous  voice  of  Steuben,  however,  was  respected 
and  it  received  the  backing  of  the  highest  authority. 

Events  very  soon  proved  the  excellence  of  his  work.  In 
the  spring  campaign  of  1778,  Lafayette,  seeing  himself 
outnumbered  and  cut  off  from  the  main  body,  was  able 
to  save  his  men  by  an  orderly  retreat;  Washington  at 
the  same  time  could  get  his  whole  army  under  arms  and 
ready  to  march  in  fifteen  minutes.  At  Monmouth,  not 
long  after,  the  sound  of  Steuben's  familiar  voice  rallied 
Lee's  broken  columns.  They  wheeled  into  line  under  a 
heavy  fire  as  calmly  and  precisely  as  if  the  battlefield  had 
been  a  parade-ground.  In  this  style  of  manoeuvring 
Steuben  was  adapting  established  principles  to  American 
conditions.  But  in  the  formation  of  the  light  infantry  he 
became  an  inventor  and  sent  back  a  lesson  from  the  New 
World  to  the  Old.  These  bodies  of  skirmishers  fouijht  in 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     325 

Indian  fashion  under  cover,  as  the  American  backwoods- 
man was  accustomed  to  do,  using  his  rifle  to  the  best 
advantage  and  according  to  his  own  judgment,  always 
being  careful  to  keep  his  body  sheltered  as  much  as 
possible.  Frederick  the  Great  adopted  a  similar  body  of 
skirmishers  and  sharpshooters  into  his  military  system. 

In  order  to  make  the  principles  of  military  discipline 
accessible  in  all  quarters,  Steuben  published  a  manual, 
long  known  in  the  army  of  the  United  States  as  "Steu- 
ben's Regulations"  or  "the  Blue  Book."  The  printing 
of  the  book  was  a  trial  and  tribulation,  but  when  that 
difficulty  was  overcome,  the  work  was  sent  to  governors 
of  states,  and  distributed  through  the  army.  For  the 
first  time  since  the  war  began,  American  officers  had  a 
clear  and  definite  guide  for  the  performance  of  their  mili- 
tary duties.*  The  economies  of  the  service  resulting  from 
Steuben's  work  were  enormous.  A  single  instance  of  this 
was  that  the  War  Office,  instead  of  having  to  count  upon 
an  annual  loss  of  from  five  to  eight  thousand  muskets, 
could  enter  upon  its  record  that  in  one  year  of  Steuben's 
inspectorship  only  three  muskets  were  missing  and  that 
even  these  were  accounted  for.  His  example  of  indefatig- 
able industry  was  contagious,  as  was  also  his  democratic 
manner  of  personally  instructing  the  common  soldier  with 
necessary  details,  which  the  American  officer,  following 
the  English  model,  had  considered  beneath  him.  Jealous- 
ies and  opposition  were  overcome  because  of  the  excellent 
results  of  Steuben's  discipline. 

*  Cf.  also  the  Reprints  :  F.  W.  Steuben,  Regulations  for  the  Order  and  Dis- 
cipline of  the  Troops  of  the  United  States  ;  Prefixed,  the  Laws  and  Regulations 
for  the  Militia  of  the  United  States  and  of  New  Hampshire.  (Published  by  order 
of  the  General  Court  of  New  Hampshire,  Portsmouth,  1794.)  And  F.  W. 
Steuben  :  Regulations  for  the  Order  and  Discipline  of  the  Troops  of  the  United 
States.  (Boston,  1802.) 


326  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Next  to  the  inspectorship,  Steuben's  most  valuable  serv- 
ices Avere  his  work  in  Virginia,  in  the  winter  of  1780-81, 
and  during  the  siege  of  Yorktown.  General  Greene  had 
been  appointed  to  command  the  Southern  army  after 
the  fatal  battle  of  Camden,  where  General  Gates  had  de- 
serted his  troops.  Steuben  went  with  Greene  because  "an 
army  had  to  be  created."  Virginia  was  relied  upon  as 
the  main  field  for  recruiting,  but  the  militia  was  thor- 
oughly demoralized,  their  ignorance  of  military  discipline 
and  "plundering  proclivities"  were  appalling.  Thomas 
Jefferson,  the  democratic  governor,  could  not  remove  any 
of  the  obstructions  which  the  generals  had  to  encounter. 
Steuben  frequently  lost  his  temper  and  strained  his  au- 
thority to  the  utmost  while  creating  an  army  for  Greene. 
Nevertheless,  through  his  hard  work  and  good  judgment 
Arnold's  invasion  was  checked,  and  Lafayette  was  enabled 
to  score  successes. 

At  Yorktown  Steuben  was  the  only  American  officer 
who  had  ever  been  present  at  a  siege,*  and  his  experience 
was  of  great  service.  He  was  in  command  of  a  division, 
and  fortune  willed  that  his  division  should  be  in  the 
trenches  when  the  first  overtures  for  surrender  were 
made.  He  had  the  privilege,  therefore,  so  highly  prized 
by  all  the  superior  officers,  —  and  notably  by  Lafayette, 
who  wished  to  claim  the  honor,  —  of  being  in  command 
when  the  enemy's  flag  was  lowered.  No  one  was  more 
deserving  of  the  distinction  than  Steuben,  the  school- 
master of  the  army.  During  the  last  two  years  of  the 
war  the  discipline  of  the  regular  American  troops  could 
well  be  compared  to  that  of  European  soldiery. 

'  Steuben  was  a  volunteer  at  the  siege  of  Prague  when  a  boy  of  fourteen  ; 
the  last  siege  in  which  he  had  participated  was  that  of  Schweidnitz  at  the 
close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  He  was  then  Frederick's  aide. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     327 

Steuben  continued  to  be  of  service  to  the  country  after 
the  war.  He  formulated  the  plans  for  building  a  mili- 
tary academy,  and  in  his  project  provided  for  full  profess- 
orships of  history,  geography,  civil  and  international  law, 
eloquence  and  belles-lettres,  showing  that  he  would  insist 
that  an  officer  be  a  broadly  educated  man.  It  is  quite 
probable  also  that  he  gave  the  first  suggestion  for  the 
formation  of  the  order  of  the  Cincinnati. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  Steuben,  having  before  coming 
to  America  yielded  his  revenues  abroad  to  his  nephew,  re- 
mained in  straitened  circumstances  for  eight  years,  until 
Congress  voted  him  a  pension  of  $2500  and  the  legis- 
lature of  New  York  State  a  gift  of  16,000  acres  of  land 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Utica,  Oneida  County,  New  York. 
This  settlement,  though  tardy,  showed  that  republics  are 
not  always  ungrateful.  To  his  last  years  Steuben  identified 
himself  closely  with  all  military  interests  of  the  country, 
as  for  instance  his  proposing  a  plan  of  fortifications  for 
New  York.  He  was  chosen  a  regent  of  the  University  of 
New  York,  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati, and  the  president  of  the  German  Society  of  New 
York  (for  the  benefit  of  immigrants)  from  1785  to  1794. 
He  died  in  1794,  leaving  generous  gifts  to  friends  and  his 
former  aides.  Though  Steuben's  deeds  did  not  shine  forth 
in  the  reports  of  battles,  they  were  such  as  prepared  and 
assured  permanent  victories.  He  was  the  creator  of  the 
discipline  of  the  regular  army  and  the  organizer  of  its  mil- 
itary system  and  economy.  His  influence  lasted  long  beyond 
his  life.  The  system  of  drills  and  manoeuvres  which  he  drew 
up  in  1779  remained  authoritative  for  several  generations. 
"His  system  of  reviews,  reports,  and  inspection  gave 
efficiency  to  the  soldier,  confidence  to  the  commander, 
and  saved  the  treasury  not  less  than  $600,000."  If  men 


328  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

are  classed  according  to  their  services,  no  one  in  the 
mihtary  history  of  the  Revolution,  after  Washington  and 
Greene,  stands  so  high  as  Steuben.  Some  other  generals 
have  received  more  praise  in  our  histories  because  of 
valor  shown  on  the  field  of  battle;  such  opportunities  never 
came  to  Steuben,  though  he  frequently  felt  a  longing  for 
them.  Lafayette,  for  instance,  a  youthful  enthusiast  who 
came  to  America  in  1777  with  an  open  purse,  a  warm 
heart,  and  the  inexperience  of  twenty  winters,  was  given 
rare  opportunities  in  the  field.  He  received  as  much  as 
he  gave,  and  if  the  amount  of  his  indispensable  service 
be  weighed,  though  much  to  be  appreciated,  it  will  be 
found  light  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  veteran  Steu- 
ben, who  trained  the  army,  created  its  discipline,  prepared 
its  victories,  and  subsequently  identified  himself  closely 
with  the  new-born  republic  as  a  public-spirited  citizen. 

One  of  the  fighting  generals  that  Germany  supplied  in 
the  Revolutionary  forces  was  John  Kalb,  so  frequently 
called  the  Baron  de  Kalb.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Franconian 
peasant,  born  in  1721  in  Hiittendorf  (not  the  son  of  a 
Dutch  nobleman).  He  was  employed  some  ten  years  before 
as  the  emissary  of  Choiseul  and  secret  agent  of  the  French 
government  (1768),  to  inspect  the  condition  of  the  British 
colonies.  After  his  return  he  married  the  daughter  of  a 
Dutch  millionaire  and  occupied  an  assured  position  of  in- 
fluence and  comfort  in  Europe.  Nevertheless  he  came  to 
America  in  1777,  with  Lafayette.  He  was  asked  to  present 
the  offer  of  the  Count  of  Broglie,  who  insinuated  his  will- 
ingness to  become  the  William  of  Orange  of  America,  — 
for  a  period  of  years,  or  longer,  if  his  distinguished  serv- 
ices could  not  be  dispensed  with.  The  messenger  soon 
wrote  to  the  French  count  that  there  was  no  possibility  of 
his  filling  Washington's  place.  John  Kalb  then  offered  his 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     329 

own  services  to  Congress,  writing  :  "  General  Washington 
has  perhaps  friends  or  deserving  officers  to  whom  he  would 
give  the  preference.  In  such  a  case  I  should  be  sorry  my 
coming  in  did  in  the  least  cross  him  or  prevent  his  dispo- 
sitions in  this  and  in  other  respects.  I  will  gladly  and  en- 
tirely submit  to  his  commands  and  be  employed  as  he  shall 
think  most  convenient  for  the  good  of  the  service."  He 
was  appointed  major-general  and  served  under  Washington 
in  New  Jersey  and  Maryland.  In  1780  he  was  dispatched 
to  South  Carolina  in  command  of  the  Delaware  and  Mary- 
land troops.  Kapp  says^  that  of  all  the  foreign  officers 
Kalb  was  the  most  "experienced,  calculating,  and  cau- 
tious." He  had  served  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  knew 
America  from  a  previous  visit,  and  was  energetic,  ambitious, 
and  duty-loving.  He  was  a  specialist  in  matters  of  topo- 
graphy and  engineering. 

In  the  Southern  campaign  he  very  soon  noticed  the  in- 
capacity of  General  Gates.  When  stationing  his  troops  in 
the  battle  of  Camden,  Gates  placed  the  rawest  of  Virginia 
militia,  who  had  just  arrived  and  did  not  yet  understand 
the  use  of  bayonets,  opposite  the  veteran  regiments  of 
Cornwallis.  The  centre  proved  little  better  in  the  fight,  for 
they  yielded  almost  as  quickly  as  the  militia.  In  the  words 
of  Gates  the  Virginia  militia  "  ran  like  a  torrent,"  "  and 
the  General  ran  with  them,"  says  Bancroft,  "and  faster, 
for  he  outdistanced  the  most  terrified  of  the  militia  and 
was  altogether  ignorant  of  the  fate  of  his  army."  Concern- 
ing what  remained,  Bancroft  says,^  "The  division  which 
Kalb  commanded  continued  long  in  action,  and  never  did 
troops  show  greater  courage  than  those  men  of  Maryland 

1  Friedrich  Kapp,  Leben  des  amerikanischen  Generals  Johann  Kalb.  (Stutt- 
gart, 1862.)  Translated  into  English,  The  Life  of  John  Kalb,  Major-General 
in  the  Revolutionary  Army.  (New  York,  1884.) 

2  Bancroft,  vol.  v,  pp.  388-89. 


330  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

and  Delaware.  The  horse  of  Kalb  had  been  killed  under 
him  and  he  had  been  badly  wounded;  yet  he  continued  to 
fight  on  foot.  At  last,  in  the  hope  of  victory,  he  led  a 
charge,  drove  the  division  under  Rawdon,  took  fifty  pris- 
oners, and  would  not  believe  that  he  was  not  about  to  gain 
the  day,  when  Cornwallis  poured  against  him  a  party  of 
dragoons  and  infantry.  Even  then  he  did  not  yield  until 
disabled  by  many  wounds.  The  victory  cost  the  British 
about  five  hundred  of  their  best  troops;  ^  their  great  loss,' 
wrote  Marion,  'is  equal  to  a  defeat.'  Except  one  hundred 
Continental  soldiers  whom  Gist*  conducted  across  swamps 
through  which  the  cavalry  could  not  follow,  every  Ameri- 
can corps  was  dispersed.  Kalb  lingered  for  three  days. 
Opulent,  and  happy  in  his  wife  and  children,  he  gave  to 
the  United  States  his  life  and  his  example.  Congress  de- 
creed him  a  monument." 

Another  German  general,  who  had  already  served  in 
the  French  and  Indian  War  in  America,  as  lieutenant 
in  the  Royal  American  Regiment,  was  George  Weedon, 
or  Gerhard  von  der  Wieden.  He  was  born  in  Hanover, 
served  in  the  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  1742-48, 
distinguished  himself  in  the  battle  of  Dettingen,  served 
with  Colonel  Henry  Bouquet  in  Flanders  and  America. 
When  the  French  and  Indian  War  was  over,  he  settled 
at  Fredericksburg,  Virginia,"  so  largely  populated  by 
Germans,  and  when  the  Revolution  broke  out  he  became 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Third  Virginia  Militia,  colonel 

*  The  Mar3'land  regiment  of  Gist  was  a  German  regiment.  Cf.  Rosen- 
garten,  p.  144. 

^  Smyth  says  of  him  :  "  We  arrived  at  Fredericksburg,  putting  up  at 
an  inn,  or  public  house  kept  by  one  Weedon,  who  is  now  a  general  officer 
in  the  American  army,  and  was  then  very  active  and  zealous  in  blowing  the 
flames  of  sedition."  Smyth's  Tour,  vol.  ii,  p.  151.  (London  edition,  1784.) 
Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  197  :  "  Weedon  and  his  banditti  ran  down  to  the  riverside  (Rap- 
pahannock), ordering  me  to  land  immediately,"  etc. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     331 

of  the  First  Virginia  Continental,  and  finally  in  1777 
brigadier-general,  taking  a  leading  part  in  the  battles  of 
Brandywine  and  Germantown.  He  left  the  service  for  a 
time,  then  in  1780  reentered  it  under  Muhlenberg  and 
commanded  the  Virginia  militia  before  Gloucester  Point 
at  the  sieg-e  of  Yorktown. 

General  Weissenfels,  or  Friedrich  Heinrich,  Baron  von 
Weissenfels,  was  an  officer  in  the  British  army  in  New 
York,  but  as  soon  as  the  Revolution  broke  out  he  offered 
his  services  to  Washington.  He  had  served  in  the  French 
and  Indian  War,  was  engaged  in  the  attack  on  Fort  Ti- 
conderoga,  and  the  taking  of  Havana  in  1762.  With  the 
brave  Wolfe  he  mounted  the  Heights  of  Abraham  and 
"saw  him  fall  in  the  arms  of  victory."  After  the  peace 
of  Versailles  he  was  an  English  officer  on  half-pay  living 
quietly  in  New  York.  At  his  wedding  with  Ehzabeth 
Bogart,  General  Steuben  was  his  best  man.  In  the  Revo- 
lution he  was  with  General  Montgomery  in  the  attack  on 
Quebec,  and  on  his  return  served  as  lieutenant-colonel  in 
command  of  the  Third  Battalion  in  the  Second  New  York 
Regiment  of  which  he  was  soon  in  complete  command.  He 
defeated  the  enemy  at  White  Plains,  accompanied  Wash- 
ington over  the  Hudson  and  through  New  York  to  Penn- 
sylvania and  took  part  in  the  battles  of  Trenton  and 
Princeton.  He  was  with  his  regiment  at  the  capture  of 
Burgoyne  at  Saratoga.  In  the  attack  at  Monmouth  Court 
House  the  formidable  British  regulars  were  for  the  first 
time  driven  off  the  field  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  by 
his  regiment  and  under  his  command.  As  second  in  com- 
mand under  General  Sullivan,  in  1779,  a  victory  was  again 
won  by  his  bayonet  charge  in  a  hot  battle  with  the  In- 
dians at  Newton  on  the  Chemung  (near  Elmira).  Weis- 
senfels was  honorably  discharged  by  Congress  at  the  end 


332  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

of  the  war,  and  died  in  1806  at  New  Orleans.  He  was 
the  first  vice-president  of  the  New  York  Deutsche  Gesell- 
schaft,  of  which  Steuben  was  for  many  years  president. 

Prominent  in  the  Revolution,  but  even  more  so  in  the 
subsequent  Indian  wars,  where  he  will  be  spoken  of  again, 
was  David  Ziegler.  Born  in  Heidelberg,  in  1748,  he 
served  in  the  Russian  campaign  against  the  Turks  under 
the  Empress  Catharine,  and  subsequently  settled  at  Lan- 
caster, Pennsylvania.  He  served  as  adjutant  in  a  Penn- 
sylvania regiment,  and  as  the  second  to  enlist  for  the  war 
under  Washington,  he  became  the  senior  captain  of  the 
First  Pennsylvania  Continental  Regiment,  serving  with 
distinction. 

Another  noted  German  officer  was  Heinrich  Emanuel 
Lutterloh,  major  of  the  guard  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick. 
He  became  acquainted  with  Franklin  in  London,  and 
through  the  latter's  influence  came  to  America  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  the  first 
assistant  quartermaster,  with  the  rank  of  colonel  on 
Washington's  staff  in  1777.  Not  until  the  following  year, 
when  Baron  Steuben  was  made  inspector-general,  the  evil 
influence  of  General  Conway  being  set  aside,  was  it  possible 
to  bring  some  degree  of  order  out  of  chaos.  Lutterloh's 
work  was  especially  appreciated  by  Washington,  who  in 
May,  1780,  made  him  quartermaster-general  of  the  army, 
in  which  capacity  Lutterloh  served  to  the  end  of  the  war. 
The  responsible  positions  of  inspector-general  (Steuben), 
quartermaster-general  (Lutterloh),  and  superintendent  of 
bakers  (Ludwig),  were  thus  held  by  Germans. 

Early  in  1776  there  arrived  in  New  York  City  a  young 
man  of  culture,  engaging  manners,  and  military  appear- 
ance, who  carried  letters  of  introduction  to  Governor 
Tryon,  introducing  him  as  a  first  lieutenant  in  the  service 


GERMANS   DURING  THE  REVOLUTION     333 

of  Frederick  the  Second,  king-  of  Prussia,  and  adjutant  of 
Prince  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick.  The  bearer  of  the  let- 
ters was  Johann  Paul  Schott.  Though  coming  with  the 
purpose  of  serving  the  English  king,  he  soon  changed 
his  mind,  being  greatly  impressed  by  the  serious  purpose 
of  the  patriots.  He  noticed  that  they  lacked  guns  and 
ammunition,  and  since  he  was  well-to-do,  he  determined 
by  a  daring  stroke  to  furnish  them  with  the  sorely  needed 
supply.  In  the  summer  of  1776  he  sailed  to  St.  Eustache, 
an  island  of  the  Lesser  Antilles  belono^inPT  to  the  Dutch, 
where  enterprising  Netherlanders  had  established  a  station 
for  blockade-runners,  whom  they  were  prepared  to  furnish 
with  goods  and  contraband  of  war.  There  Schott  hired  a 
schooner,  loaded  it  with  weapons  and  war  materials  at 
his  own  expense,  and  steered  for  the  coast  of  Virginia. 
At  the  mouth  of  the  Chesapeake  he  found  the  English 
fleet  blockading  the  entrance  to  Hampton  Roads.  Schott 
deceived  them  by  hoisting  a  British  flag;  he  had  also 
dressed  his  entire  crew  in  the  uniform  of  Eno-Hsh  seamen. 
The  English  warships  at  first  took  the  schooner  for  a 
transport  belonging  to  their  own  fleet,  until  they  saw 
Schott  cross  their  line.  Their  sig^nal  to  return  was  not 
heeded,  but  the  shot  and  broadside  that  followed  did  no 
harm  to  the  swift  schooner.  When  they  reached  their 
destination,  Schott's  men  were  again  in  danger,  owing  to 
their  disguise,  for  although  they  hoisted  the  flag  of  the 
colonies  they  had  not  had  an  opportunity  to  change  their 
uniforms.  They  were  fired  upon,  when  Schott  raised  a 
white  flag  and  the  schooner  then  anchored  in  the  harbor 
of  Norfolk  amid  great  rejoicing.  The  supplies  were  gladly 
bought  by  the  colonists  and  a  vote  of  thanks  was  given 
him.  His  petition  for  an  officer's  rank  in  the  Continental 
army  was  granted  soon  after  in  1776.  He  was  made  cap- 


834  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

tain  and  sent  to  General  Washington  in  New  York,  in 
active  service. 

A  story  is  told  connecting  a  bit  of  romance  with  his 
entry  into  the  army.  General  Washington  was  stationed 
at  the  Battery,  in  order  to  observe  the  movements  of  the 
British  fleet.  A  large  frigate  tried  to  go  up  North  River, 
whereupon  Washington  gave  command  to  fire  upon  it. 
At  the  same  time  his  own  battery  was  being  bombarded 
from  Governor's  Island  and  there  was  particularly  one 
gun  which  troubled  the  Americans.  Schott,  who  had  had 
no  opportunity  to  approach  General  Washington  because 
he  was  in  council  with  his  staff,  noticed  a  cannon  that 
was  not  being  served.  Thereupon  he  called  several  of  the 
men  who  stood  about  idly,  bade  them  help  load  the  gun, 
and  then  sighted  it  himself.  The  first  shot  silenced  the 
troublesome  piece  on  Governor's  Island.  Washington,  who 
had  observed  the  movement,  turned  to  Schott  and  asked  him 
whether  he  was  a  trained  artillerist.  The  latter  assented, 
and  delivered  to  the  general  his  papers.  Washington 
turned  to  Colonel  Knox,  commander  of  the  artillery,  ask- 
ing him  whether  there  was  a  vacancy  among  his  captains. 
There  proved  to  be  one,  owing  to  the  illness  of  one  of  the 
captains,  Schott  was  put  in  his  place,  and  at  the  battle  of 
White  Plains  commanded  the  Third  Battery  in  Knox's  ar- 
tillery. It  will  be  remembered  that  it  was  principally  due  to 
the  artillery  of  Colonel  Knox  that  the  Americans  were  able 
to  get  off  their  entire  baggage  in  the  face  of  the  enemy. 

Schott  proved  serviceable  in  another  way.  At  a  time 
when  Washington  had  great  difficulty  in  retaining  soldiers 
about  him,  their  periods  of  service  being  over,  and  when 
the  English  forces  were  constantly  being  increased  by 
mercenaries  from  the  Continent,  Washins-ton  sent  Schott 
to  the  Pennsylvania  districts  to  recruit  an  independent 


GERMANS   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION     335 

German  troop  of  dragoons  (July  31,  1777).  Scbott  had 
permission  to  appoint  his  own  officers  and  give  commands 
in  German.  Subsequently  there  were  three  more  com- 
panies who  were  put  under  his  command,  whom  he  led  in 
the  battle  of  Short  Hills.  Given  the  post  of  covering  the 
retreat,  he  was  severely  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  It 
was  a  queer  whim  of  fate  that  he,  who  had  been  feted  by 
the  Tories  on  his  arrival  at  New  York,  should  now  for 
six  months  become  their  prisoner.  They  offered  him  a 
place  in  the  British  army,  but  he  refused.^  He  was  in 
prison  under  the  notorious  Cunningham,  and  after  being 
exchanged  in  1779  was  in  the  army  of  General  Sullivan, 
commandinof  the  rio;ht  wino;  in  the  brig-ade  of  General 
Hand.  The  Indians  were  attacked  at  Newton  (near  the 
present  Elmira,  New  York),  their  forces  were  annihilated, 
and  their  villages  destroyed. 

Generals  Sullivan  and  Hand  recommended  Schott  for 
promotion,  which  no  doubt  would  have  been  acted  upon 
favorably  if  his  wounds,  received  in  the  battle  of  Short 
Hills,  had  not  made  active  service  very  difficult  for  him. 
Schott  was  therefore  made  commandant  of  the  forts  in 
Wyoming,  which  position  he  held  to  the  end  of  the  war. 
After  that  he  settled  down  in  Wilkesbarre.  In  1787  he 
was  elected  to  the  state  legislature  and  was  one  of  the 
most  earnest  advocates  of  the  union  of  the  colonies.  He 
was  active  in  all  the  public  affairs  of  his  constituency  and 
figured  also  in  the  Wyoming  trouble  between  Pennsylvania 
and  Connecticut. 

1  In  a  letter  to  the  Honorable  Richard  Rush  (June  28, 1828),  Archives  of 
the  Pension  Office,  1828,  vol.  ii,  no.  179,  MS.,  Schott  says  :  "  I  had  chosen 
America  as  my  fatherland,  and  nothing  could  induce  me  to  desert  her  just 
cause."  He  also  states  that  he  was  born  in  Prussia,  in  1744.  In  the  pension 
lists  of  1828  he  is  credited  with  an  annual  pension  of  $1200,  payable  until 
his  death.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp.  49-57  (Rattermann). 


336  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

It  will  be  impossible  in  these  pages  to  do  justice  to  the 
great  number  of  German  soldiers  who  fought  with  dis- 
tinction during  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  order  of  the 
Cincinnati,  consisting  of  officers  who  were  engaged  on 
the  patriot  side  in  the  Revolution,  had  among  its  mem- 
bership a  very  large  number  of  Germans.  For  the  state 
of  New  York  alone  —  and  we  know  that  the  German 
population  of  New  York  was  not  so  large  as  that  of  some 
other  colonies  —  the  roll  of  the  Cincinnati  includes  the 
following  names :  Major-General  Steuben,  Colonel  H. 
E.  Lutterloh,  Colonel  Nicholas  Fish,  Colonel  F.  von 
Weissenfels  (Second  New  York  Regiment),  Major  Se- 
bastian Baumann^  (Second  New  York  Artillery  Regi- 
ment), Captain  H.  Tichout  (First  New  York  Regiment), 
Captain  G.  Sytez  (First  New  York  Regiment),  Lieutenant 
Peter  Anspach  (Second  New  York  Artillery  Regiment), 
Lieutenant  Henry  Demler  (Second  New  York  Artillery 
Regiment),  Lieutenant  Joseph  Freilich  (Second  New 
York  Regiment),  Lieutenant  Michael  Wetzel  (Second 
New  York  Regiment),  Lieutenant  John  Furmann  (First 
New  York  Regiment),  Lieutenant  C.  F.  Weissenfels 
(Second  New  York  Regiment),  Captain-Lieutenant  Peter 
Neslett  (New  York  Artillery),  and  Captain-Lieutenant 
Peter  Jaulmann.^ 

Families  of  German  descent  frequently  gave  every  able- 

»  Sebastian  Bauraann  was  major  in  Colonel  Lamb's  regiment  of  artillery. 
He  served  from  1777  to  1784,  was  a  well-trained  officer  of  German  birth, 
and  resident  in  New  York  long  before  the  war.  He  took  part  in  the  siege 
of  Yorktown,  and  in  1782  published  the  only  American  map  or  survey  of 
that  important  field  of  operations.  He  was  postmaster  of  New  York  after 
the  war,  and  died  in  1803.  Cf.  Rosen garten,  p.  136. 

2  Rosengarten,  pp.  136-137.  For  a  list  of  the  German  officers  in  the  First 
to  the  Thirteenth  Pennsylvania  Continental  Regiments,  see  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vols,  viii,  ix,  and  x.  Hundreds  of  names  of  German  officers,  subalterns, 
and  common  soldiers  are  there  given. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     337 

bodied  man  Into  the  service  of  the  cause.  Such  a  family- 
were  the  Heisters  (Hiesters).  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Re- 
volution their  names  were  on  the  list  of  "  Associators," 
a  military  company  that  rendered  important  service  in 
the  campaigns  of  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Delaware,  and 
Pennsylvania.  Daniel  Heister's  four  sons  all  entered  as 
officers,  —  Daniel,  the  oldest,  as  colonel;  John  and  Gabriel 
as  majors ;  and  William,  the  youngest,  as  leader  of  a 
company.  The  most  distinguished  of  the  family  was 
Joseph  Heister,  a  son  of  John  Heister.  He  became  captain 
of  the  '•  Flying-Camp,"  organized  in  Reading  and  environs. 
Joseph  at  that  time  was  twenty-three  years  of  age.  He 
was  highly  esteemed  by  his  fellow  citizens  and  possessed 
a  gift  of  speech  and  persuasion  which  could  fire  others 
with  enthusiasm.  He  recruited  first  a  company  and  later 
a  regiment,  using  frequently  his  own  means  to  effect  his 
purpose.  He  was  a  modest  man,  and  though  the  soldiers 
wished  him  to  be  their  colonel,  he  refused  in  favor  of 
others,  offering  rank  as  an  inducement  to  win  them  for 
the  service  of  the  country.  Accordingly  he  used  his  in- 
fluence among  the  soldiers  to  appoint  Haller  colonel  and 
Edward  Burd  major.  He  was  himself  content  with  the 
rank  of  captain.  They  marched  off  to  join  Washington, 
but  when  they  learned  that  they  were  to  serve  far  beyond 
the  limits  of  their  state,  and  that  the  result  was  much  in 
doubt,  the  militiamen  were  near  a  mutiny.  Heister  gath- 
ered them  in  a  compact  group,  then  appealed  to  their 
patriotism  and  sense  of  honor.  He  declared  that  he  would 
go  alone  if  no  one  would  follow.  When  the  drum  was 
sounded,  all  but  three  obeyed  the  command  of  "  For- 
ward! march,"  and  a  moment  later  the  three  skulkers 
also  joined  the  moving  ranks. 

On  Long  Island  they  were  united  with  the  regiment 


338  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  Lord  Stirling  and  fought  bravely  with  him  and  his 
Maryland  regiments  until  captured.  The  First  Pennsyl- 
vania Battalion  sustained  the  heaviest  loss,  and  a  contem- 
porary estimate  reads  :  "  Lord  Stirling's  brigade  sustained 
the  hottest  of  the  enemy's  fire  ;  —  they  were  all  surrounded 
by  the  enemy  and  had  to  fight  their  way  through  the 
blaze  of  their  fire.  They  fought  and  fell  like  Romans."  * 
Amonof  the  German  officers  that  fell  were  Lieutenant- 
Colonels  Piper,  Lutz,  and  Kiichlein,  and  Major  Burd. 
Joseph  Heister  languished  for  some  time  in  an  English 
prison-ship,  under  Cunningham,  and  after  being  exchanged 
had  to  lose  more  time  at  his  home  in  Reading,  to  regain 
his  health.  He  then  returned  to  the  army  and  rose  rapidly 
to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  on  Washington's  own 
recommendation.  He  served  to  the  end  of  the  war,  and 
afterwards,  with  the  Miihlenbergs  and  Albert  Gallatin, 
became  a  leader  of  the  Germans  in  Pennsylvania.  He 
was  for  fourteen  years  representative  of  his  district  in 
Congress,  after  which  he  was  elected  by  a  large  majority 
to  the  governorship  of  the  state.  After  serving  for  three 
years  he  would  not  allow  his  name  to  be  used  again  for 
candidacy. 

No  Pennsylvania  family  furnished  more  eminent  men 
for  the  public  service  than  the  Miihlenbergs.  Three  of 
the  sons  of  the  Lutheran  patriarch,  who  himself  was  an 
ardent  patriot,  rose  to  distinction  in  the  service  of  the 
republic,  and  the  oldest  (John)  Peter  (Gabriel)  was  Penn- 
sylvania's choice  when  a  statue  of  its  representative  citizen 
was  to  be  placed  in  the  capitol  at  Washington.  His  career 
has  already  in  part  been  sketched.  As  a  soldier  he  won 
distinction  at  Charleston,  Brandywine,  Germantown,  Mon- 

1  American  Archives,  series  v,  vol.  i,  p.  1212, — a  letter  from  New  York 
dated  August  29,  1776. 


FREDERICK  AUGUSTUS  MUHLENBERG 
JOHN  CHRISTOPHER  KUNZE 


PETER  MUHLENBERG 
G.  H.  ERNST  MUHLENBERG 


GERMANS   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION     339 

mouth,  Stony  Point,  and  Yorktown.  In  Virginia  he  was 
the  light-hand  man  of  Steuben  in  creating  an  army,  and 
fought  desperately  against  superior  numbers  to  cheek 
the  advance  of  Arnold  in  Virginia.  He  represented  Penn- 
sylvania in  the  United  States  Congress  from  1789-91, 
1793-95,  and  from  1799-1801.  He  was  vice-president  of 
the  state  of  Pennsylvania  under  Franklin,  and  owing  to 
Franklin's  age  and  infirmities  became  practically  the  head 
of  the  government.  In  the  year  1788  he  and  his  brother 
left  no  stone  unturned  to  secure  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States. 

The  brother  was  Frederick  August  Miihlenberg,  who 
had  likewise  been  trained  in  theology  at  Halle,  but  when 
the  war  began  became  interested  in  the  politics  of  his 
country.  In  1779-80  he  was  a  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  during  the  next  three  years  a  member  and 
speaker  of  the  Pennsylvania  state  legislature.  He  called 
the  Convention  of  1790  which  drafted  the  constitution 
of  Pennsylvania;  was  a  member  of  the  First,  Second, 
Third  and  Fourth  United  States  Congresses,  and  possesses 
the  distinction  of  having  been  the  first  Speaker  of  the. 
House  of  Representatives.  He  was  reelected  Speaker  of 
the  House  durinof  the  Third  Cons^ress.  Another  brother, 
Henry  Ernest  Muhlenberg,  was  likewise  intended  for  the 
ministry  by  his  father,  studied  theology  at  the  University 
of  Halle,  as  did  his  brothers,  and  on  his  return  became 
a  Lutheran  minister  in  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  and  else- 
where. He  was  the  foremost  scholar  of  the  family,  a 
naturalist  and  botanist,  member  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  (Philadelphia),  and  of  learned  European 
societies.  His  son,  Henry  August  Muhlenberg,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  United  States  Congress  for  nine  years,  a  sup- 
porter of  President  Jackson,  was  nominated  for  governor 


340  THE   GEKMAN   ELEMENT 

of  Pennsylvania  by  the  Democratic  party,  but  died  before 
the  election. 

In  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  there  was  organized 
in  1775  a  German  regiment  called  the  German  Fusileers, 
which  by  1776  counted  over  one  hundred  Germans  in  its 
ranks.  Its  captain  was  Alexander  Gillon,  its  first  lieuten- 
ant Peter  Bouquet  (brother  of  the  general  of  that  name), 
and  its  second  lieutenant,  Michael  Kalteiseu.  At  the 
storming  of  the  fortress  at  Savannah,  in  1779,  where 
Pulaski  lost  his  life,  the  German  Fusileers  were  under 
the  command  of  the  German  colonel,  Laurens.  They  lost 
their  captain,  Karl  Scheppard  (Schaefer),  and  the  first 
lieutenant,  Joseph  Kimmel.  Michael  Kalteisen  was  a  mov- 
ing spirit  in  the  formation  of  the  German  Friendly  Society 
(already  referred  to),  which  by  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
had  a  membership  of  one  hundred,  and  advanced  two 
thousand  pounds  to  the  state  for  defense  against  the 
crown,  a  sum  surely  not  inconsiderable  at  that  time. 

At  the  battle  of  King's  Mountain  (or  Cowpens),  October 
29,  1781,  which  did  so  much  toward  reviving  the  hopes 
of  patriots  in  the  South,  Colonel  Hambright,  of  German 
descent,  and  in  all  probability  representing  a  southern 
branch  of  the  Pennsylvania  family  of  the  same  name,  ren- 
dered excellent  service.  The  North  and  South  Carolinians 
of  the  American  forces  were  under  command  of  Williams, 
Lacey,  Hambright,  Chronicle,  and  others.^  Hambright 
and  Chronicle  were  in  command  of  the  South  Fork  men 
from  the  Catawba.  Chronicle  was  killed  and  Hambriofht 
wounded.  In  spite  of  his  wounds,  the  latter  kept  in  the 
saddle  and  continued  in  the  battle.  The  tactics  of  the 
fight  consisted  in  retreating  before  a  bayonet  attack  by 
the  enemy,  but   returning  immediately  upon   him  after 

1  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  ii,  pp.  276,  282. 


GERMANS   DUEING  THE   REVOLUTION     341 

the  charge.  Staying  qualities  such  as  shown  by  Hambright 
were  therefore  needed  to  carry  out  the  plan  of  ultimately 
surrounding  and  annihilating  the  enemy.  Tarleton's  much- 
feared  raiding  bands  were  on  this  day  almost  totally  de- 
stroyed. 

An  interesting  group  of  soldiers  were  the  sharpshoot- 
ers under  General  Morgan.  Among  them  there  were  a 
large  number  of  Germans  gathered  from  the  Valley  of 
Virginia  and  from  the  frontier  settlements  of  the  Caro- 
linas.  The  names  of  a  number  of  German  Virginians  from 
Winchester  and  vicinity  who  were  in  Morgan's  famous 
band  of  riflemen,  have  come  down  to  us :  ^  Johann  Schultz, 
Jacob  Sperry,  Peter  and  Simon  Lauck,  Frederick  Kurtz, 
Karl  Grimm,  Georg  Heisler,  and  Adam  Kurz.  Six  of 
these  formed  the  so-called  "  Dutch  Mess."  They  messed 
together  during^  the  entire  war  and  survived  all  their  se- 
vere  campaigns.  They  acted  as  aides-de-camp,  but  never 
received  or  accepted  officers'  commissions.  After  the  war 
they  obtained  lands  near  Winchester,  Virginia,  and  their 
descendants  live  in  that  locality  to-day. 

An  interesting  individual,  reminding  one  of  the  "  Mar- 
ketenderin  "  in  Schiller's  "  Wallenstein's  Lager,"  was  Moll 
Pitcher.  She  had  served  as  a  maid  in  Dr.  William  Irvine's 
family  in  Carlisle,  Pennsylvania,  and  was  generally  called 
Molly,  her  real  name  being  Maria  Ludwig.  About  the 
time  of  the  begcinnino:  of  the  war  she  married  William 
Hess  (Hays).  Her  husband  became  a  gunner  in  an  artil- 
lery company,  and  Molly  returned  after  a  time  to  serve 
in  General  Irvine's  family.  She  got  news  that  her  hus- 
band had  been  severely  wounded,  whereupon  she  started 
out  immediately  to  find  him.  She  nursed  him  when  found, 
and  after  that,  for  seven  years,  she  accompanied  him  from 

*  Cf.  Der  Westen,  Chicago,  1892,  reported  by  Andreas  Simon. 


342  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

battlefield  to  battlefield.  She  was  utterly  fearless,  brought 
water  and  food  to  the  soldiers,  and  helped  to  carry  away 
the  wounded  and  care  for  them.  "  Here  comes  Molly 
with  her  pitcher,"  was  a  refreshing  sound  in  the  heat 
of  battle,  that  made  her  known  throughout  the  army  as 
Moll  Pitcher.  At  the  battle  of  Monmouth  she  is  said  to 
have  served  in  exemplary  fashion.  At  a  moment  when 
her  husband  was  wounded  and  no  assistance  seemed 
available  for  serving  the  cannon,  she  herself  set  about 
putting  the  piece  in  order  and  loading  it,  while  those 
about  her  were  apparently  in  doubt  whether  to  stand 
or  retreat.  It  was  a  trying  moment,  but  the  company 
held  out  until  sustained  by  reinforcements.  Washington 
is  said  to  have  witnessed  the  act,  to  have  praised  the 
woman,  and  in  reward  raised  her  husband  to  the  rank 
of  sergeant.  They  settled  at  Carlisle  after  having  served 
throughout  the  war.  Congress  gave  her  the  rank  of  brevet- 
captain,  and  allowed  her  an  annual  pension  of  forty  dol- 
lars, which  she  received  until  her  death. ^ 

A  patron  of  American  sailors  was  the  German  merchant, 
Dohrmann,  located  at  Lisbon,  Portugal.  He  frequently 
supported  American  privateersmen  who  were  stranded  or 
in  trouble  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  By  selling  weapons 
and  munitions  of  war  to  American  cruisers,  which  he 
sometimes  accomplished  on  the  high  seas  by  means  of  his 
own  ships,  he  exposed  himself  to  the  hostility  of  the 
British  government,  who  finally  succeeded  in  inducing 
the  court  of  Lisbon  to  banish  Dohrmann  from  the  country. 
This  happened  in  the  year  1782.    Leaving  his  business 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp.  187-190.  One  of  her  grandchildren 
describes  her  as  of  short,  thick-set  stature,  blue  eyes  and  reddish  hair,  and 
almost  masculine  features.  She  was  possessed  of  great  strength  of  character, 
and  according  to  the  same  source  of  information  had  mannish  manners,  was 
often  feared,  and  would  sometimes  swear. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     343 

and  extensive  banking  interests  in  the  hands  of  a  brother, 
he  made  his  way  to  New  York.  Washington,  in  a  letter 
to  the  Honorable  Samuel  Chase,  July  9,  1785,  introduced 
him  in  the  following  manner:  Dohrmann  "who  at  an 
early  period  of  the  war  (when  our  affairs  were  rather 
overshadowed)  advanced  his  money  very  liberally  to  sup- 
port our  suffering  countrymen  in  captivity.  He  has  some 
matter  to  submit  to  Congress  which  he  can  explain  better 
than  I.  I  am  persuaded  he  will  offer  nothing  which  is  in- 
consistent with  the  strictest  rules  of  propriety  and  of 
course  that  it  will  merit  your  patronage."  *  Mr.  Dohr- 
mann's  private  fortune  had  in  the  mean  time  met  severe 
reverses  because  of  the  failure  of  his  partners  in  Lisbon. 
The  plea  before  Congress  was  to  permit  Dohrmann  to 
realize  on  the  heavy  advances  he  had  made  for  the  bene- 
fit of  American  seamen.  Congress,  on  the  report  of  the 
treasurer,  awarded  the  sum  of  ^5806,  with  interest  for 
expenditures  according  to  vouchers  examined.  Resolutions 
were  made  as  follows :  — 

Whereas  the  claims  of  Arnold  Henry  Dohrmann  against  the 
United  States  of  America  amounted  to  $20,277  over  and  above 
the  sum  of  -15806,  as  above  stated,  in  support  of  which  imj)ortant 
documents  are  offered  by  Mr.  Dohrmann,  whose  own  house  was 
frequently  the  asylum  of  whole  crews  of  captive  American  sea- 
men, who  were  fed,  clothed,  and  relieved  in  sickness  through  his  . 
benevolence,  and  that  at  a  time  when  his  attachment  to  the  cause 
of  America  was  dangerous  both  to  his  person  and  property : 

And  whereas  Congress  are  disposed  to  acknowledge  in  the 
most  honorable  manner  the  eminent  services  rendered  by  Mr. 
Dohrmann  and  to  make  him  further  compensation  : 

Resolved  unanimously :  That  the  said  A.  H.  Dohrmann  be 

1  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  pp.  52  ff.,  109  ff.,  201  ff.  Heinrich  Arnold 
Dohrmann  was  born  in  Hamburg.  He  was  naturalized  as  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  December  18,  1787. 


344  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

allowed,  as  agent  from  the  United  States  at  the  Court  of  Lisbon, 
the  sura  of  $1600  per  annum,  and  that  said  salary  be  computed 
from  the  period  at  which  his  expenditures  commenced  to  the 
present  day. 

Mesolved unanimously :  That  one  complete  and  entire  township 
.  .  .  surveyed  in  the  western  territory  of  the  United  States,  be 
granted  to  A.  H.  Dohrmann,  free  from  all  charges  of  survey, 
and  with  choice  of  the  three  ranges  last  surveyed.  ^ 


Dohrmann  was  instrumental  in  negotiating  loans  for 
the  United  States,  e.  g.,  in  1783  for  John  Adams  during 
his  visit  to  Holland  with  the  bankers  Van  Staphorst  and 
others  in  Amsterdam,  leading  to  a  loan  of  two  million 
guilders.'  The  later  loans,  of  June  1,  1787,  and  March 
13,  1788,  of  one  million  Dutch  guilders  each,  were  nego- 
tiated by  the  house  of  Dohrmann  in  New  York,  though 
they  bear  the  signature  of  John  Adams.  In  1789  came 
the  financial  crash  at  Lisbon.  James  Madison  and  Thomas 
Jefferson,  then  in  Paris,  were  Dohrmann's  lawyers.  Dohr- 
mann paid  his  debts,  but  the  loss  of  three  ships  in  1808 
with  valuable  cargoes  broke  his  fortunes.  Even  the  land 
given  him  by  Congress,  located  in  Tuscarawas  and  Harrison 
counties,  Ohio,  went  into  the  hands  of  land  sharks.  Dohr- 
mann settled  finally  at  Steubenville,  Ohio,  where  he  died 
in  1813  of  a  broken  heart.  His  wife  in  1817  received  a 
pension  from  Congress. 

It  is  not  commonly  known,  though  all  historical  docu- 
ments agree  as  to  the  fact,  that  the  French  troops  under 
Rochambeau,  who  were  sent  over  to  aid  the  American 
cause,  contained  a  large  number  of  German  soldiers,^  and 

1  These  resolutions  were  dated  Monday,  October  1, 1787,  Journal  of  Con- 
gress, vol.  iv,  pp.  783-84. 

2  Consummated  March  9,  1784.    Journal  of  Congress,  second  edition,  ap- 
pendix of  vol.  iv,  p.  25. 

3  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  317  fE.,  360  ff.,  430  £E. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE  REVOLUTION     345 

some  German  regiments.  The  German-French  auxiliary 
troops  were  as  follows :  — 

First:  The  regiment  called  Royal  Allemand  de  Deux 
Fonts.  This  was  the  Royal  German  Regiment  of  Zwei- 
brucken.  The  colonel  and  commander  of  this  regiment 
was  Prince  Christian  of  Zweibriicken-Birkenf eld ;  the 
lieutenant-colonel  was  Prince  Wilhelm  von  Zweibrilcken- 
Birkenfeld;  the  major  was  Freiherr  Eberhard  von  Ese- 
beck  (Baron  d'Esbech),  and  the  captain  was  named 
Haake.    The  regiment  served  in  America  from  1780-83. 

Second  :  A  battalion  of  grenadiers  of  Kur-Trier,  of  the 
Regiment  Saar,  which  appears  as  "  Detachement  du  Regi- 
ment La  Sarre,"  and  which  was  incorporated  with  the 
regiment  "Saintonge,"  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Adam  Philipp,  Count  of  Custine  of  Lothringen. 

Third :  Several  divisions  of  Alsatians  and  Lotharinefians 
joined  with  the  regiments  "Bourbonnais"  and  "Soisson- 
nais"  as  yagers. 

Fourth:  A  large  part  of  the  "Independent  Horse" 
under  the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Lauzun,  of  which  le- 
gion a  list  is  found  in  the  archives  of  Harrisburg,  Penn- 
sylvania. 

Fifth :  Several  German  officers  served  in  responsible 
positions  in  the  French  army,  such  as  Freiherr  Ludwig 
von  Closen-Haydenburg,  adjutant  of  Rochambeau ;  Cap- 
tain Gau,  commandant  of  artillery ;  and  the  Strassburg 
professor,  Lutz,  interpreter  for  the  marquis.  Whether 
the  regiment  called  Anhalt  (six  hundred  men)  mentioned 
in  connection  with  the  siege  of  Savannah,  1779,  in  the 
forces  of  Count  d'Estaing,  was  composed  of  Germans,  is 
a  matter  of  doubt;  detailed  information  is  lackinsf. 

Knowing  which  were  the  German  regiments  among  the 
French  troops,  and  which  were  German  in  the  Colonial 


346  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

army,  it  becomes  manifest  that  the  German  soldier  ren- 
dered conspicuous  service  in  the  final  campaign  which 
culminated  in  the  siege  and  capture  of  Yorktowu.  The  only 
sortie  which  was  made  during  the  siege,  namely,  that  of 
Tarleton  at  Gloucester,  was  beaten  back  by  the  Legion 
of  Armand,  about  twelve  hundred  militia  under  General 
Weedon  and  the  men  under  the  Duke  of  Lauzun,  all  to- 
gether between  three  and  four  thousand  men,  over  half  of 
whom  must  have  been  German.  The  enemy  were  defeated 
at  all  points  and  Tarleton  escaped  capture  with  difficulty. 
When  the  second  parallel  of  trenches  was  drawn  about 
the  city  of  Yorktown,  two  redoubts  stood  in  the  way.  On 
the  fourteenth  of  October  the  American  batteries  directed 
their  fire  all  day  against  the  abatis  and  salient  angles 
of  these  two  advanced  redoubts,  and  breaches  were  made 
in  them  sufficient  to  justify  an  assault.  The  redoubt  on  the 
right  near  York  River  was  garrisoned  by  forty-five  men, 
that  on  the  left  by  three  times  as  many.  The  storming  of 
the  former  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Americans  under  the 
command  of  Lieutenant  -  Colonel  Alexander  Hamilton  ; 
that  of  the  latter  to  the  French.^  On  the  left  about  four 
hundred  grenadiers  and  yagers  were  selected  and  placed 
under  the  command  of  Count  William  de  Deux  Fonts. 
He  was  no  other,  as  we  have  seen,  than  Frince  Wilhelm 
von  Zweibriicken,  and  his  grenadiers  and  yagers  were 
selected  from  the  regiment  of  Zweibriicken  (entirely  Ger- 
man), Gatinois,  and  Agenois,  among  whom  also  were  Ger- 
mans. We  are  told  by  a  contemporary  account  ^  that  there 
was  joy  and  confidence  before  the  start,  quiet  and  energy 
in  overcoming  the  dangers  of  the  attack,  and  order  and 

^  Bancroft,  vol.  v,  pp.  519  S. 

^  That  of  the  Baron  of  Viomenil,  who  had  the  supreme  command  in  the 
attack  on  the  redoubts. 


GERMANS   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION     347 

bumanity  in  victory.  According  to  a  well-founded  tradi- 
tion, commands  were  given  in  the  German  language  on 
either  side  when  the  redoubt  was  captured/  showing  that 
German  regiments  in  the  French  service  were  attacking 
and  Hessians  were  defending  the  fortification.^  The  re- 
doubt was  defended  by  one  hundred  Hessians  and  thirty 
English  and  they  defended  themselves  bravely,  inflicting 
heavy  losses;  56  of  the  Gatinois  regiment,  21  grenadiers 
and  yagers  of  the  Zweibriicken  regiment,  6  of  Agenois, 
and  9  others  killed  or  wounded.  Prince  Wilhelm  von 
Zweibriicken  was  slightly  wounded  in  the  face.  At  the 
head  of  the  Royal  Grenadiers  of  Zweibriicken  there  was 
Captain  Henry  de  Kalb,  a  cousin  of  the  German-Ameri- 
can o-eneral  who  fell  at  Camden.  He  was  the  first  of  the 
attacking  party  to  enter  the  redoubt.  Tradition  has  it 
that  he  lost  one  of  his  shoes  in  climbing  the  parapet, 
which  evidently  did  not  impede  his  progress,  for  he 
immediately  took  a  British  officer  prisoner.^ 

The  Marquis  of  Rochambeau  rewarded  the  soldiers 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  storming  of  the  redoubt  with 
two  days'  extra  pay.  Washington  presented  them  with 
two  of  the  brass  cannons  they  had  taken,  one  each  to 
Zweibriicken  and  to  Gatinois  as  a  remembrance  of  their 
bravery.  The  other  redoubt  was  not  so  well  defended  and 

1  Cf.  The  Diary  of  Johann  Conrad  Doehla  in  Zell,  "  IMarschroute  und 
Beschreibung  der  merkwiirrligsten  Begebenheiten  in  und  aus  Anierika'' 
(1811).  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  422  S.  Also  Kapp,  Life  of 
Steuben,  p.  459. 

^  Eelking  was  evidently  in  error  wlien  he  spoke  of  the  use  of  German 
commands  as  "  eine  Kriegslist."  He  wrote  from  the  Hessian  point  of  view. 
Max  von  Eelking,  Die  deutschen  Hiilfstruppen  in  Nord  Amerika  im  Befrei- 
ungskriege,  1776-83  (Hanover,  1863),  two  volumes,  is  a  work  giving  a  very- 
complete  account  of  the  campaigns  of  the  Hessian  soldiers  in  the  United 
States.  The  work  was  translated  :  The  German  Allied  Troops  in  the  North 
American  War  of  Independence,  1776-83,  by  Rosengarten,   (Albany,  1893.) 

3  Kapp,  Life  of  Steuben,  p.  459. 


348  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

was  taken  without  loss  by  the  American  force  under  the 
officers  Hamilton,  Fish,  Gionat,  Laurens,  and  Mansfield. 
The  importance  of  the  capture  of  the  redoubts  was  very 
soon  evident.  Steuben  included  them  in  the  second  paral- 
lel and  on  the  morning  of  October  17  the  regiments  Zwei- 
briicken,  Bourbonnais  (containing  divisions  of  Alsatians 
and  Lotharingians),  on  the  French  side,  went  into  the 
trenches,  while  the  division  of  Baron  Steuben  was  ordered 
into  the  works  on  the  American  side.  All  resistance  soon 
proved  ineffective  against  the  impenetrable  chain  of  forti- 
fications which  was  now  enclosing  Yorktown.  The  bri- 
gade of  Steuben  consisted  of  Wayne's  Pennsylvania 
regiment,  Muhlenberg's  Virginians,  Gist's  Marylanders, 
the  whole  brigade  being  at  least  one  half  German.  The 
German  element  was  thus  very  fortunate  in  occupying 
the  most  honorable  position,  namely,  that  in  the  trenches, 
at  the  time  when  the  crisis  came.  There  it  was  that  Steu- 
ben received  the  first  overtures  of  peace  from  Cornwallis. 
Lafayette  requested  that  he  be  permitted  to  supersede 
Steuben,  but  the  latter,  knowing  that  by  the  etiquette  of 
military  custom  he  was  entitled  to  the  place  until  the  sur- 
render, referred  the  matter  to  Washington.  Washington 
decided  in  favor  of  Steuben.  The  latter  was  not  impelled 
by  personal  vanity,  nor  did  the  Prussian  feel  antagonistic 
to  the  Frenchman,  but  he  possessed  a  large  measure  of 
pride  in  his  Americans.  He  wanted  the  American  soldiery, 
his  pupils  in  military  tactics  and  discipline,  to  be  honored 
as  the  recipients  of  the  enemy's  suit  of  surrender.  Simi- 
larly, when  shortly  before  the  capitulation  the  Count  Deux 
Ponts  (Zweibrlicken)  offered  to  support  Steuben's  forces 
in  the  trenches,  he  refused  any  aid  whatsoever.  When 
the  Count  Deux  Ponts  had  gone  away,  Wayne  remarked 
that  Steuben  had  only  one  thousand  men  in  his  entire 


GERMANS   DURING  THE  REVOLUTION     349 

division.  The  latter  said,  "  If  I  was  guilty  of  a  certain 
amount  of  gasconade  with  regard  to  the  number  of  my 
men,  it  was  for  the  honor  of  your  country,"  whereupon 
Wayne  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  addressing  himself  to 
the  officers  present  said :  "  Now,  gentlemen,  it  is  our  duty 
to  make  sfood  the  exasfoneration  of  Baron  Steuben  and  to 
support  him  just  as  if  he  had  double  the  number  of  the 
troops  that  he  has."  * 

The  popular  impression  about  the  Hessians  who  served  in 
the  English  army  is  that  they  were  a  species  of  Nibelungs, 
or  devils.  Time  ought  to  be  allowed  to  heal  the  wounds 
that  Hessian  bayonets  once  inflicted;  the  lover  of  his 
country  should  understand  before  casting  judgment. 
The  Hessians  were  the  victims  of  the  tyranny  of  their 
rulers,  who  sold  the  lives  and  services  of  their  subjects  to 
the  highest  bidder.  The  English  government  was  at  that 
time  the  best  customer.  Large  profits  were  realized  by  the 
petty  princes  who  were  willing  to  sell  mercenaries  for  the 
war  in  the  American  colonies,  as  can  be  seen  by  examina- 
tion of  the  contracts  between  the  parties  on  either  side, 
contracts  which  were  not  kept  secret.  An  estimate  of  the 
returns  derived  by  several  of  the  princes  is  as  follows :  ^ 

Hesse-Cassel  in  8  years  £2,959,800 

Brunswick  in  8  years  750,000 

Hesse-Hanau  in  8  years  343,130 

Waldeck  in  8  years  140,000 

Anspach-Bayreuth  in  7  years  282,400 

Anhalt-Zerbst  in  6  years  109,120 

Kapp  estimates  that,  all  told,  the  expense  to  England 
for  the  German  mercenary  troops  was  at  least  seven  mil- 
lion pounds  sterling,  the  equivalent  at  present  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  to  one   hundred  and   fifty  million 

.     1  Kapp,  Life  of  Steuben,   p.  458.  *  Rosengarten,  p.  63. 


350  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

dollars/  Mercenary  soldiers  existed  among  tlie  Germans 
from  time  immemorial.  They  served  the  Romans  in  order 
to  learn  the  art  of  war,  and  subsequently  applied  the 
teaching  against  their  former  masters.  They  served  in 
the  civil  wars  of  Rome  on  either  side  of  the  contests; 
they  were  participants  perhaps  in  every  European  war 
down  to  1870.  The  Thirty  Years'  War,  the  age  of  the 
Landshiechte,  was  an  epoch  that  deprived  the  mercenary 
soldier  of  any  national  principles  that  he  may  have  had.' 
One  day  he  would  fight  for  the  Empire,  the  next  for  the 
Swede,  then  for  the  French,  always  going  with  the  best 
pay  and  largest  booty. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  German  armies  were  not 
composed  of  the  whole  body  of  citizens  as  now.  They 
consisted  of  recruits  frequently  drafted  or  forced  into  the 
army  against  their  will.  The  system  of  recruiting  soldiers 
was  developed  to  an  art  and  had  its  rules  and  regulations, 
all  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  recruit.  Kapp  has  furnished 
us  with  extracts  from  a  book  of  regulations  giving  sug- 
gestions to  recruiting  officers.^  The  recruit  must  be  dis- 
armed and  searched  carefully,  lodged  only  in  hotels  that 
keep  rooms  specially  fitted  for  the  purpose.  If  on  the 
march  he  is  under  suspicion  of  running  away,  the  buttons 
of  his  trousers  or  his  suspenders  are  to  be  cut,  so  that  he 
must  carry  his  trousers  with  his  hands.  If  he  has  made 
an  attempt  to  escape,  he  must  be  put  in  irons  or  the 

*  This  estimate  is  found  on  page  212  of  Friedrich  Kapp's  authoritative 
work,  Der  Soldatenhandel  deutscher  Fiirsten  nach  Amerilca.  (Berlin,  1874.) 
Reviewed  by  the  New  York  Nation,  September  10,  1874.  Kapp  estimates 
one  hundred  and  twenty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  million  thalers;  according 
to  the  present  value  of  money  we  may  estimate  dollars  at  least. 

*  The  Landsknechte  were  recruited  from  adventurers  of  all  nations. 

'  Kapp,  Soldatenhandel,  pp.  13-17.  The  book  is  Prussian,  showing  that 
the  abuses  of  recruiting  existed  in  a  country  where  soldiers  were  not  sold 
nor  mercenaries  tolerated. 


GERMANS   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION     351 

thumbscrews  must  be  applied.  It  is  unfortunate  if  the 
officer  in  charge  has  to  make  use  of  his  gun  and  wound 
the  recruit,  or  be  obliged  to  kill  him.  If  the  recruit  is  of 
particular  strength,  it  is  well  to  have  two  officers  accom- 
pany him,  etc.,  etc.  Young  and  vigorous  men  were  always 
in  danger  of  being  kidnapped,  but  no  exception  was 
made  for  fathers  of  families  or  travelers  distant  from  their 
friends.  Men  of  any  station  in  life  were  in  danger  of  being 
impressed  into  the  service,  as  was  for  instance  the  German 
traveler  and  poet  Seume,  who  has  written  a  delightful 
autobiography,  containing  his  experiences  as  a  kidnapped 
trooper  in  the  English  service.^  As  a  result,  the  military 
service,  for  which  the  German  has  no  innate  abhorrence, 
became  roundly  hated,  and  desertions  were  very  frequent. 
The  Margrave  Anspach,  for  instance,  in  order  to  make 
sure  that  the  soldiers  he  had  sold  would  arrive  at  their 
destination,  acted  as  their  driver,  taking  ''his  children" 
on  board  the  ship  and  even  marking  their  beds.  The  atti- 
tude of  the  recruits  was  by  no  means  such  as  depicted  by 
the  Duke  of  Walbeck  in  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,^ 
when  he  described  his  regiment  as  consisting  of  six  hun- 
dred men  "  composed  of  officers  and  soldiers  who,  as 
their  prince,  did  not  wish  for  anything  better  than  to  find 
an  occasion  of  sacrificing  themselves  for  his  British  Maj- 
esty." If  the  parents  of  the  kidnapped  sons  complained, 
the  father  was  sent  to  the  iron-mines  and  the  mother  to 
jail.  A  deserter  was  compelled  to  run  the  gauntlet  twelve 
times  a  day  for  two  days  in  succession,  sometimes  being 
beaten  to  death  by  switches  during  the  ordeal.  Schiller's 
depiction,  in  "  Kabale  und  Liebe,"  of  the  soldier's  parting 
from  home  was  no  exaggeration.^  What  the  poet  says  of 

»  J.  "G.  Seume,  Mein  Leben.  (1813.)         "^  Kapp,  Soldatenhandel,  p.  244. 
»  Schiller's  Kabale  und  Liebe,  Act  ii,  Sc.  ii. 


352  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  excesses  at  the  petty  courts  and  the  small  valuation 
put  upon  a  human  life  was  literally  true.  The  Margrave 
of  Anspach,  in  order  to  please  his  mistress,  had  a  chimney- 
sweep shot  down  from  the  roof  of  the  castle  of  Bruck- 
berg.  She  had  uttered  a  wish  to  see  the  man  fall.  The 
widow,  who  besought  His  Grace  for  some  means  of  sup- 
port, was  given  five  guldens  as  a  compensation.  Human 
life  became  only  valuable  in  the  foreign  service;  it  was 
not  rated  at  five  guldens  there.  The  Landgrave  of  Hessen, 
for  example,  in  spite  of  stupendous  extravagance,  was 
able  at  his  death  to  leave  sixty  million  guldens  in  the 
treasury  as  a  result  of  his  barter  in  human  flesh. 

The  greatest  of  the  German  j)rinces  did  not  allow  his 
subjects  to  be  sold.  Frederick  the  Great  used  his  influence 
against  the  sale  of  recruits  in  other  German  states  and 
refused  to  allow  mercenaries  who  were  intended  for  the 
American  service  to  pass  through  his  domains.  He  said 
on  one  occasion :  "  If  that  crown  [the  English]  would  give 
me  all  the  millions  possible,  I  would  not  furnish  it  two 
small  files  of  my  troops  to  serve  against  the  colonies." 
Frederick  encouraged  France  in  a  war  against  England 
for  the  defense  of  the  colonies,  and  made  promises  to  do  all 
in  his  power  to  prevent  the  purchase  of  mercenaries.^  In 
1778  Frederick's  minister  Schulenburg  wrote  officially  to 
one  of  the  colonial  commissioners  in  Paris :  "  The  king 
desires  that  your  generous  efforts  may  be  crowned  with 
complete  success.  He  will  not  hesitate  to  recognize  your 
independence,  when  France,  which  is  more  directly  inter- 
ested in  the  event  of  this  contest,  shall  have  given  the 
example." 

In  view  of  the  system  of  mercenary  soldiery  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  that  on  many  of  the  American  battle- 

1  Bancroft,  vol.  v,  p.  240. 


GEEMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     353 

fields  there  were  Germans  opposing  Germans.  Dieskau 
in  the  French  and  Indian  War  served  the  French  and 
fouffht  asfainst  the  Mohawk  Germans  under  Colonel 
William  Johnson.  In  the  New  Jersey  campaign,  during 
the  Revolution,  Knyphausen  was  at  times  pitted  against 
Steuben,  both  of  these  officers  having  served  in  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  as  comrades  under  Frederick  the  Great. ^  In 
the  siege  of  Yorktown  Tarleton  led  his  Hessians  against 
the  German  Colonial  troops  under  Armand,  the  left  re- 
doubt was  taken  by  Germans  under  Zweibriicken  against 
Hessian  defenders,  and  other  instances  might  be  cited. 

As  soldiers  the  Hessians  behaved  like  veterans  and 
were  not  exultant  in  victory.  Their  officers,  Riedesel, 
Heister,  Knyphausen,  Donop,  Specht,  Baum,  Breimann, 
and  Rahl,  were  all  brave  and  capable  men  (possibly  with 
the  exception  of  the  last  mentioned).  When  in  captivity 
they  proved  amiable  companions ;  Thomas  Jefferson,  for 
instance,  enjoyed  their  music.  Riedesel,  who  was  captured 
at  Saratoga,  and  his  wife,  who  wrote  the  delightful  let- 
ters,^ were  especial  favorites  of  their  captors.  The  Germans 
in  the  English  service  who  were  made  prisoners  at  York- 
town  fraternized  with  the  German  Colonial  regiments. 
General  Milhlenberoj  commanded  the  small  escort  which 
accompanied  the  German  prisoners  to  their  winter  quar- 
ters at  Winchester  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Later  they 
were  sent  to  Frederick,  Maryland,  where  they  also  found 
a.  hearty  welcome  on  the  part  of  the  German  farmers  of 
that  region.  Others  were  sent  to  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania, 

*  Knyphausen  gave  out  a  special  order  by  which  Steuben's  life  was  to  be 
spared  if  ever  endangered  by  an  attack  of  the  Hessians.  Cf.  Rosengarten, 
pp.  78-79. 

^  Briefe  der  Generalin  von  Riedesel.  (Berlin,  1800.)  Translated  by  Wallen- 
stein;  also  by  Stone.  Cf.  also  Von  Riedesel,  Die  Berufsreise  nach  Amerika. 
(1788.) 


354  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

and  in  all  these  places,  because  the  Hessians  were  good 
fellows,  houses  were  opened  to  them,  home  comforts  were 
provided,  and  the  German  tongue  was  used  to  the  delight 
of  their  ears.  In  consequence  many  of  them  settled  per- 
manently in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  or  Virginia.  We 
read  that  at  Frederick  the  salute  in  honor  of  the  close  of 
the  war,  in  April,  1783,  was  fired  by  Hessian  soldiers 
under  a  Bayreuth  artillery  captain.  He  also  prepared  the 
fireworks  for  the  evening,  and  the  German  regiments 
furnished  the  music  for  the  ball.  Instances  of  Hessian 
officers  serving  as  school-teachers,  and  of  still  a  larger 
number  becoming  farmers,  can  be  noted  all  the  way  from 
New  York  to  South  Carolina.^  In  the  Carolinas  desertions 
of  Hessians  were  particularly  numerous,  following  the 
example  of  John  Yost  Miitze,  who  deserted  near  Charles- 
ton, then  located  in  the  Saxe-Gotha  district,  and  became 
the  father  of  an  influential  family. 

Desertions  had  occurred  very  early  in  the  war  and  were 
encouraged.  The  baker,  Christopher  Ludwig,  declared  his 
policy  in  the  following  words :  "  Bring  the  captives  to 
Philadelphia,  show  them  our  beautiful  German  churches, 
let  them  taste  our  roast  beef  and  homes,  then  send  them 
away  again  to  their  people  and  you  will  see  how  many  will 
come  over  to  us."  Congress  was  not  averse  to  the  idea, 
and  their  committee  wrote  to  Washington  advising  not  to 
exchange  the  Hessians  captured  at  Trenton.  Washington 
agreed,  and  the  provision  and  transportation  of  the  Ger- 
man prisoners  was  put  into  Ludwig' s  hands,  who  brought 
them  first  to  Berks,  Lancaster,  and  Lebanon  counties. 
There  were  many  deserters  among  the  Hessians  who  were 

1  e.  g.,  the  ancestor  of  General  Custer,  Indian  fighter,  and  cavalry  leader 
in  the  Civil  War,  was  a  Hessian  soldier  who  settled  in  Pennsylvania.  See 
below.  Chapter  xvi. 


GERMANS   DURING  THE   REVOLUTION     355 

ready  at  once  to  volunteer  for  the  American  service.  A 
movement  was  instituted  to  establish  a  regiment  of  Hes- 
sian deserters,  but  the  plan  was  not  countenanced  by 
Washino;ton. 

The  exact  number  of  Hessians  who  made  the  united 
colonies  their  home  will  never  be  known.  They  commonly 
located  in  the  German  settlements,  being  disliked  as  a  rule 
by  the  English  settlers,  who  harbored  resentful  feelings 
against  them.  They  never  settled  in  groups  large  enough 
to  form  separate  colonies,  and  were  therefore  lost  in  the 
German  population.  We  depend  for  information  upon  in- 
sufficient records,  such  as  those  of  a  traveling  Rhinelander, 
who  reports  that  he  found  many  Hessians  located  in  the 
city  of  Baltimore,  where,  he  says,  one  third  of  the  popu- 
lation was  German.^  In  accordance  with  the  tendency  of 
locating  with  other  earlier  German  settlers,  a  number 
of  Hessians  located  at  Lunenburg,  Nova  Scotia.  Several  of 
the  Hessians  were  men  of  learning,  such  as  Julius  von 
Wangenheim,  captain  of  yagers,  who  wrote  a  description 
of  American  trees  and  bushes  (Gottingen,  1781),  and  Dr. 
Johann  David  Schopf,  military  surgeon  of  Bayreuth,  who 
made  a  careful  study  of  plants  useful  in  medicine.^ 

Eelking  Ogives  the  names  of  twenty-eight  officers  and  sub- 
alterns of  the  Brunswick  auxiliary  troops  who  remained  in 
the  United  States  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 

'  Nachrichten  und  Erfahrungen  iiber  die  Vereinigten  Staaten  von  Amerika, 
gesammelt  auf  seiner  Reise  in  den  Jahren  1806  his  1808.  Von  einem  Rheinlan- 
der.    (Frankfurt-am-Main,  1812.) 

^  He  traveled  through  the  United  States  as  far  as  Florida  after  the  war, 
became  acquainted  with  G.  H.  E.  Muhlenberg,  the  botanist,  who  rendered 
some  assistance  to  Schopf  in  his  work,  published  in  Germany  in  1787,  enti- 
tled Materia  Medico  Americanis  Septentrionalis  Potissimum  Regni  Vegetahilis. 
Cf.  Rosengarten,  pp.  91-92. 

3  In  the  work  already  cited,  Die  deutschen  Hiil/struppen  in  Nord  Amerika 
im  Befreiungskriege,  1776-83. 


356  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

or  deserted  previously,  or  who  returned  to  America  after 
having  gone  back  to  Europe  with  their  companies/  Kapp 
furnishes  a  careful  tabulation  of  the  number  of  German 
auxiliary  troops  in  the  English  service,  giving  the  number 
that  arrived  in  America  and  returned  to  Europe,^  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Number  sent  Returned  Lost 

Brunswick  5,723  2,708  3,015 

Hessen-Kassel  16,992  10,492  6,500 

Hessen-Hanau  2,422  1,441  981 

Anspach  2,353  1,183  1,170 

Waldeck  1,225  505  720 

Anhalt-Zerbst  1,160  984  176 

Total  29,875  17,313  12,562 

Twelve  thousand  five  hundred  is  therefore  the  careful 
estimate  of  the  number  of  Hessian  soldiers  who  remained 
in  the  United  States,  dead  or  alive.  Certainly  one  half  of  the 
number  can  be  counted  as  survivors  and  settlers  within 
the  precincts  of  the  United  States.  If  they  were  all  like 
those  of  whom  we  have  record,  they  made  good  citizens 
of  their  adopted  country. 

1  The  list  is  reprinted  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xv,  pp.  285-287. 
^  Kapp,  Soldatenhandel  (chap,  xi),  pp.  209-210. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    WINNING    OF    THE    WEST 

I.    THE   GERMAN  SETTLERS   IN   KENTUCKY   AND   TENNESSEE 

The  early  history  of  the  Kentucky  settlements  —  Germans  among  the  colo- 
nists from  the  Carolinas  and  the  Valley  of  Virginia  —  Favorable  loca- 
tion of  the  Germans  for  early  colonization  —  Migratory  spirit  —  The 
question  as  to  whether  any  particular  national  type  was  superior  on  the 
frontier  — The  frontier  creates  types  —  Many  instances  of  Germans  as 
hunters,  trappers,  and  Indian  fighters  —  The  three  classes  of  settlers 
—  The  Germans'  share  in  the  permanent  settlement  of  the  Blue  Grass 
Region  of  Kentucky  —  Statistics  gathered  from  land-records  and  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Pensions  —  The  Germans  settled  mainly  in  the 
central  and  western  portions  of  the  Blue  Grass  Region  —  Evidences  of 
early  settlements  by  Germans  in  Tennessee. 

The  next  four  chapters  will  follow  the  progress  of 
Western  settlement  from  the  period  succeeding  the  Re- 
volutionary War  to  the  time  when  the  frontier  line  dis- 
appeared from  the  map  of  the  United  States.  The 
German  immigrants  of  the  nineteenth  century,  just  as 
their  predecessors  of  the  eighteenth,  followed  the  fron- 
tier line  closely,  aiding  materially  in  the  advance  of  Amer- 
ican civilization  to  the  westward,  regardless  of  the  hos- 
tility of  savage  races,  or  adverse  conditions  of  soil  and 
climate. 

The  settlement  of  the  great  Middle  West,  the  present 
centre  of  population  of  the  United  States,  proceeded 
through  two  channels :  first,  by  way  of  the  early  settle- 
ments in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  secondly,  by  way 


358  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  the  Ohio  River/  As  the  opening  from  the  southwest 
came  earlier,  that  will  be  considered  first. 

The  early  history  of  Kentucky  is  inseparably  linked 
with  the  name  of  Daniel  Boone.^  He  was  born  in  Bucks 
County,  Pennsylvania,  and  migrated  in  his  eighteenth 

^  All  roads  from  the  Atlantic  States  converged  upon  two  points,  Fort  Pitt 
(Pittsburg)  and  Cumberland  Gap.  There  was  a  road  from  Philadelphia 
through  the  upper  and  central  points  of  Pennsylvania,  by  way  of  Juniata 
Creek  and  Fort  Ligonier  to  Pittsburg  ;  another  led  out  from  Baltimore, 
passing  Old  Town,  and  Cumberland  Fort  on  the  Potomac  River,  and  along 
Braddock's  road  to  Redstone  Old  Fort  (now  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania),  on 
the  Monongahela  River,  thence  to  Pittsburg.  The  distance  from  Philadel- 
phia to  Pittsburg  was  about  three  hundred  and  twenty  miles.  From  the  lat- 
ter place  the  settlers  boarded  a  flat-boat  and  floated  down  the  Ohio  River. 
But  the  dangers  of  the  water  route  were  so  great  that  if  the  travelers  had 
little  baggage  it  was  far  better  for  them  to  take  the  road  through  the  Valley 
of  Virginia  to  Cumberland  Gap.  The  distance  from  Fort  Washington  (now 
Cincinnati)  to  Philadelphia  by  this  so-called  "  Wilderness  Road  "  was  almost 
eight  hundred  miles,  but  the  traveler  was  protected  for  most  of  the  dis= 
tance,  though  led  through  wild  country.  A  military  order  of  1792  calls  this 
the  most  direct  route  between  Fort  Washington  and  Philadelphia,  i.  e.,  by 
way  of  Lexington  and  Crab  Orchard  (Kentucky)  ;  Cumberland  Mountain, 
Powell  Valley,  Abingdon,  Botetourt,  Lexington  (Virginia),  and  Staunton  ; 
Martinsburg  (West  Virginia)  and  Hagerstown  (Maryland) ;  York  and  Lan- 
caster (Pennsylvania).  See  Filson  Club  Publications,  no.  2  (1886);  Thomas 
Speed  :  The  Wilderness  Road  ;  a  description  of  the  routes  of  travel  by  which 
the  pioneers  and  early  settlers  frst  came  to  Kentucky,  pp.  10  £f.,  23  £f. 

In  1792  the  Wilderness  Road  was  improved  by  private  enterprise,  the 
following  German  names  appearing  among  the  subscribers  :  Jacob  Froman 
(who  was  the  only  one,  besides  Isaac  Shelby,  who  subscribed  so  large  an 
amount  as  three  pounds),  Peter  Troutman,  Isaac  Hite  and  Abraham  Hite, 
George  i\I.  Bedinger,  George  Muter,  George  Teagarden  (Tiergarteu  ?).  See 
Filson  Club  Publications,  supra,  pp.  48^9. 

^  It  was  claimed  for  some  time  by  writers  on  the  Germans  in  the  United 
States  that  Boone  was  of  German  origin.  His  birth  in  a  county  of  Pennsyl- 
vania where  there  were  many  Germans,  and  the  fact  that  he  spoke  Penn- 
sylvania German  fluently,  seem  to  indicate  more  than  mere  acquaintance 
with  Germans.  The  spelling  of  his  name,  ending  in  e,  and  resembling 
"  Bohne,"  a  frequent  German  name,  seemed  to  give  some  further  basis  for 
the  supposition.  Biographers  generally  (e.  g.,  Thwaites,  Daniel  Boone)  give 
English  ancestry.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x,  p.  273. 


MISSISSIPPI   FLAT-BOATS 


CONESTOGA    WAGON 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  359 

year  to  North  Carolina,  where  for  some  years  he  lived  as 
a  hunter  and  farmer.  About  1769,  in  company  with  sev- 
eral frontiersmen,  he  made  a  journey  to  the  West  for 
adventure  and  discovery,  and  returned  after  an  absence 
of  two  years.  He  had  visited  the  great  hunting-grounds, 
lying  between  the  Ohio  on  the  north,  and  the  Tennessee 
and  Cumberland  rivers  on  the  south.  That  territory  the 
Indians,  both  of  the  north  and  of  the  south,  claimed  as 
their  own,  but  neither  dared  to  have  and  to  hold  it.  They 
called  it  Kan-tuck-kee,  "  the  dark  and  bloody  ground," 
for  it  was  the  scene  of  battle  and  bloodshed  whenever 
rival  hunters  met.  Into  the  struggle  for  possession  of  this 
No  Man's  Land,  the  white  race  soon  forced  an  entrance, 
Boone's  journey,  in  1769,  marking  the  beginning  of  the 
stubborn  war  of  conquest.  After  his  return,  Boone  deter- 
mined to  make  a  settlement  in  the  rich  country  that  he 
had  seen.  With  his  wife  and  children,  and  two  of  his 
brothers  and  their  families,  he  migrated  to  Kentucky.  On 
the  way  they  met  five  other  families  and  forty  well-armed 
men,*  who  joined  the  company.  Near  the  Cumberland 
Gap  they  were  attacked  by  Indians,  and  driven  back  to 
the  Clinch  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Tennessee. 

Several  years  later  the  Transylvania  Company  was 
founded  for  the  settlement  of  Kentucky,  and  Boone  was 
chosen  to  lead  the  surveying  party.  They  cut  the  Wilder- 
ness Trail,  went  far  into  the  interior  of  Kentucky,  and 
built  a  stockade  fort,  called  Boonesborough.  In  1775 
Boone  brought  his  wife,  children,  and  friends,  who  had 
remained  on  the  Clinch  River,  to  the  settlement  on  the 
Kentucky  River,  named  in  his  honor.  Other  fortified 
stations,  as  Harrodsburg  (1774),  Logan's  Fort,  Bryant's 

'  It  is  more  thun  probable  that  some  of  these  were  pioneers  of  German 
descent. 


360  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Station,  Lexington,  were  founded.  Bloody  Indian  wars 
followed,  which  drove  back  almost  all  of  the  early  colo- 
nists,—  who  had  settled  in  Kentucky  immediately  before 
or  during  the  first  years  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  But 
when  hostilities  between  the  American  colonies  and  Great 
Britain  practically  ceased,  in  1782,  a  vast  influx  of 
pioneers  appeared  in  Kentucky.  The  treaty  that  followed 
was  not  fairly  kept  by  either  the  white  or  the  red  men, 
with  the  result  that  the  Indian  war  was  renewed  with 
treble  violence. 

Boone  was  not  the  earliest  hunter  to  explore  Kentucky. 
A  few  years  before  Boone  went  to  Kentucky,  Stoner 
(Steiner)  and  Harrod,  two  hunters  from  Pittsburg,^  who 
had  passed  through  the  Illinois  territory,  went  down  to 
hunt  in  the  bend  of  the  Cumberland,  where  Nashville 
now  stands,  and  found  game  very  abundant.  In  1774 
some  forty  men,  led  by  Harrod  and  Sodowsky,^  founded 
Harrodsburg,  where  they  built  cabins  and  planted  corn.' 
This  was  the  earliest  settlement  in  Kentucky,  and  while 
its  beginnings  were  ill-starred,  it  still  exists,  as  the 
county-seat  of  Mercer  County.  George  Yeager  (Jager), 
the  "  long  Dutchman,"  had  visited  Kentucky  with  the 
Indians,  when,  as  a  boy,  he  was  their  prisoner.  In  1771 
he  fell  in  with  Simon  Kenton  and  George  Strader  ( possibly 

1  So  stated  in  Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i,  p.  144.  Stoner 
(Steiner)  was  a  Pennsylvania  German,  a  schoolmate  of  Boone,  and  his 
companion  in  many  adventnres. 

^  There  were  a  number  of  men  of  German  blood  in  this  expedition,  e.  g., 
Abraham  Hite,  grandson  of  Joist  Hite,  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  the 
Valley  of  Virginia.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  pp.  262  ff.  Sodowsky 
was  a  German  Pole  who  was  very  successful  as  an  Indian  trader.  The  spell- 
ing of  his  name  is  also  Sandusky. 

^  The  corn  was  planted  and  harvested  by  John  Harman  (  Johannes  Her- 
mann) in  1774,  the  first  crop  of  a  white  man  in  Kentucky.  Cf.  L.  Collins, 
Historical  Sketches  of  Kentucky  (1847),  p.  452.  Cf .  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol. 
X,  p.  274. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  361 

the  German  name  Strater),  and  they  proceeded  down  the 
Ohio  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky  River,  looking  in 
vain  for  the  rich  cane-lands,  which  Yeager  remembered 
to  have  seen,  in  the  land  which  the  Indians  called  Kan- 
tuck-kee.  In  1775,  after  Yeager  had  been  killed  by  the 
Indians,  Kenton  and  Williams  accidentally  discovered 
cane-lands  inland,  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  in  what  is 
now  Mason  County  (within  the  Blue  Grass  Region),  pre- 
sumably the  same  which  Yeager  had  praised  with  great 
warmth,  kindling  Kenton's  enthusiasm  for  the  quest/ 

The  following  is  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  unnumbered 
hunters  and  pioneers,  whose  strength  was  spent  and 
whose  blood  was  shed  that  others  might  follow :  "  The 
West  was  neither  discovered,  won,  nor  settled  by  any  single 
man.  No  keen-eyed  statesman  planned  the  movement,  nor 
was  it  carried  out  by  any  great  military  leader ;  it  was  the 
work  of  a  whole  people  ;  of  whom  each  man  was  impelled 
mainly  by  sheer  love  of  adventure;  it  was  the  outcome 
of  the  ceaseless  strivings  of  all  the  dauntless,  restless 
backwoods  folk  to  win  homes  for  their  descendants  and 
to  each  penetrate  deeper  than  his  neighbors  into  the  re- 
mote forest  hunting-grounds  where  the  perilous  pleasures 
of  the  chase  and  of  war  could  be  best  enjoyed.  We  owe 
the  conquest  of  the  West  to  all  the  backwoodsmen,  not  to 
any  solitary  individual  among  them ;  where  all  alike  were 
strong  and  daring,  there  was  no  chance  for  any  single 
man  to  rise  to  unquestioned  preeminence."  ^ 

It  has  generally  been  conceded,  in  a  vague  manner, 
that  the  Germans  had  some  part  in  the  winning  of  the 
West,  but  the  great  importance  of  their  share,  from  the 
very  beginning  to  the  end,  has  never  been  awarded  full 

^  Cf.  Collins,  supra,  pp.  383,  384  ;  Der  deutscke  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  p.  186. 
2  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i,  pp.  145-146. 


362  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

recognition.  At  the  period  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  immediately  after,  when  the  first  strides  forward  were 
made,  the  Germans  stood  in  great  numbers  at  the  very 
gateways  of  the  Western  territory,  ready  to  press  out  into 
the  new  country  as  soon  as  the  barriers  could  be  lowered. 
The  map  illustrating  the  location  of  the  German  pioneers 
about  1775  (Chapter  x)  shows  at  a  glance  that  the  Ger- 
mans were  settled  directly  on  the  frontier  line  for  most  of 
the  distance  between  Maine  and  Georgia,  and  that  they 
were  most  advantageously  located  for  the  first  plunge  into 
the  Western  wilderness.  The  two  sections  that  took  the 
most  prominent  part  in  the  early  settlement  of  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  were  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  and  the  cen- 
tral, then  western  counties  of  North  and  South  Carolina. 
In  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  taking  it  throughout  its  length, 
the  Germans  were  more  numerous  than  the  Irish,  or  any 
other  element  taken  singly.  In  Botetourt,  Wythe,  and  the 
southwestern  counties  of  Virginia,  German  settlers  became 
ever  more  numerous  about  1775,  and  in  the  New  River 
section  and  along  the  Kanawha,  as  far  as  our  meagre  in- 
formation goes,  they  were  about  as  well  represented  as 
any  other  national  stock.  In  North  Carolina  they  first  set- 
tled in  the  Yadkin  River  district,  while  the  Scotch-Irish 
were  a  little  to  the  southwest  of  them  on  the  Catawba, 
but  by  1775  the  German  settlers  had  mingled  with  the 
Irish  on  the  Catawba,  thus  reaching  the  farthest  western 
borders.  Their  position  on  the  Yadkin  was  quite  as  near, 
however,  to  the  gateways  of  the  West.  In  South  Carolina 
the  German  settlers  were  from  the  start  as  far  west  as  any. 
"  In  the  Carolinas  the  Germans  seem  to  have  been  almost 
as  plentiful  on  the  frontiers  as  the  Irish,"  such  was  the 
opinion  of  contemporaries  .^ 

1  Adair,  p.  245  ;  and  Smyth's  Tour,  vol.  i,  p.  236.   Quoted  by  Roosevelt, 


IN   KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  363 

In  Pennsylvania  the  Germans  occupied  the  best  lands  of 
the  middle  sections,  and  they  also  mingled  with  the  border- 
ers, the  more  adventurous  among  them,  or  the  young, 
wishing  to  build  new  homes,  seeking  the  frontier.  The  Ger- 
man pioneers  were  a  prolific  people;  large  famihes  never 
appeared  a  burden  to  them.  Children  would  very  quickly 
become  helpers  in  the  field  or  in  the  woods.  As  soon  as 
they  reached  maturity  they  would  marry  and  seek  homes 
farther  west,  if  they  could  not  conveniently  be  provided 
for  at  home.  Their  future  depended  entirely  upon  their 
own  energy  and  industry,  as  had  that  also  of  the  parent 
stock.  These  facts  of  early  marriage  and  constant  migration 
we  find  recorded  repeatedly  by  the  ministers  of  the  Luth- 
eran and  other  German  churches,  from  Pennsylvania  to 
Georgia.  Muhlenberg  says  :  *  "  I  have  noticed  that  within 
the  five  years  of  my  being  here,  hardly  half  of  the  orig- 
inal members  of  my  congregations  in  the  country  remain. 
Of  the  other  half  some  have  died,  but  for  the  most  part 
they  have  gone  away,  forty  to  one  hundred  English  miles 
[in  the  manuscript  of  his  journal  Muhlenberg  says  more 
correctly,  one  to  two  and  three  hundred  miles],  to  the 
boundaries  of  Pennsylvania,  to  Maryland  and  Virginia. 
In  the  mean  time  the  conoreofations  have  not  become  less 
in  number,  but  have  grown,  because  every  year  more  Ger- 
mans come  in,  and  the  others  settle  their  children  about 
them,  as  many  as  can  find  room  and  subsistence."  No 

vol.  i,  p.  107.  Smyth  says  :  "  It  was  also  unlucky  for  me  that  the  inhabit- 
ants on  the  plantations  [frontier  of  North  Carolina],  where  I  called  to  en- 
quire my  way,  being  Germans,  neither  understood  my  questions,  nor  could 
render  themselves  intelligible  to  me  ;  and  the  few  I  chanced  to  find  that 
did  understand  English,  being  chiefly  natives  of  Ireland,  most  wretchedly 
ignorant  and  uncivilized,  could  give  me  no  directions  to  ascertain  the  right 
way." 

^  Hallesche  Nachrichten  (Reprint),  vol.  i,  p.  342,  §  217,  written  from  Pro- 
vidence, Pennsylvania  (1747). 


364  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

more  authentic  or  striking  proof  of  the  migratory  spirit 
of  the  German  colonists  could  be  found  than  this  state- 
ment of  the  patriarch  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  It  shows 
us  that  migration  took  place  westward  and  southwestward 
not  only  from  the  border-lands,  but  also  from  the  midland 
counties. 

In  regard  to  the  survival  and  success  of  pioneer  settlers 
of  different  national  stocks,  a  contemporary  observer  in 
Kentucky  estimated  that,  "  of  twelve  families  of  each  na- 
tionality, nine  German,  seven  Scotch,  and  four  Irish  pro- 
spered, while  the  others  failed."  '  "  The  German  women 
worked  just  as  hard  as  the  men,  even  in  the  fields,  and 
both  sexes  were  equally  saving.  Naturally  such  thrifty 
immigrants  did  well  materially  ;  but  they  never  took  a  posi- 
tion of  leadership  or  influence  in  the  community  until  they 
had  assimilated  themselves  in  spefech  and  customs  to  their 
American  neighbors.  The  Scotch  were  frugal  and  indus- 
trious ;  for  good  or  for  bad  they  speedily  became  indistin- 
guishable from  the  native-born.  The  greater  proportion  of 
failures  among  the  Irish,  brave  and  vigorous  though  they 
were,  was  due  to  their  quarrelsomeness  and  their  fondness 
for  drink  and  litigation ;  besides  [remarks  this  Kentucky 
critic]  they  soon  took  to  the  gun,  which  is  the  ruin  of 
everything."  ^ 

The  good  impression  which  the  German  settlers  made 
upon  influential  men  is  illustrated  by  George  Washing- 
ton's plan  of  settling  Germans  upon  his  ten  thousand 
acres,  south  of  the  Ohio,  —  lands  that  had  been  granted 
him  for  service  in  the  French  and  Indian  War.  He  wrote 
in  February,  1774,  to  James  Tilghman,  in  Philadelphia, 

1  Description  of  Kentucky,  1792,  by  Harry  Toulmin,  president  of  Transyl- 
vania Seminary,  1794-96  ;  Secretary  of  State,  1796-1804.  Quoted  by  Roose- 
velt, vol.  iii,  p.  17. 

^  Roosevelt,  vol.  iii,  pp.  17-18. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  365 

concerning  the  possibility  of  settling  Palatines  on  his 
lands/  inquiring  whether  he  should  send  an  intelligent 
German  to  the  Old  Country,  for  the  purpose  of  recruiting 
colonists  and  transporting  them.  He  also  addressed  Henry 
Riddle  in  Philadelphia,  promising  to  give  the  German 
peasants  free  transportation  to  the  Ohio,  sustenance  up 
to  the  first  harvest,  and  four  years'  free  rental  on  unim- 
proved land.  But  the  Revolutionary  War  made  an  end 
of  his  plan  for  the  settlement  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  Gov- 
ernor Glenn  of  South  Carolina,  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  wrote  concerning  the  Germans  :  "Our 
trade  with  New  York  and  Philadelphia  was  of  this  sort, 
draining  us  of  all  the  little  money  and  bills  that  we  could 
gather  from  other  places  for  their  bread,  flour,  beer,  hams, 
bacon,  and  other  things  of  their  produce,  all  of  which, 
except  beer,  our  new  townships  began  to  supply  us  with, 
which  were  settled  with  very  industrious  and  thriving 
Germans.  This  no  doubt  diminishes  the  number  of  ship- 
ping and  the  appearance  of  our  trade,  but  it  is  far  from 
being  a  detriment  to  us."  ^  The  German  settler  not  only 
survived  among  the  fittest,  wherever  he  went,  but  he  also 
established  the  economic  independence  of  his  colony. 

The  best  frontiersmen  were  undoubtedly  those  born  on 
the  border.  "  Colonists  fresh  from  the  Old  World,  no  mat- 
ter how  thrifty,  steady-going,  and  industrious,  could  not 
hold  their  own  on  the  frontier ;  they  had  to  settle  where 
they  were  protected  from  the  Indians  by  a  living  barrier 
of  bold  and  self-reliant  American  borderers."^  The  native- 

^  Sparks,  The  Writings  of  George  Washington,  vol.  ii,  pp.  382-383. 

^  Weston,  Documents  connected  with  the  History  of  South  Carolina,  p.  61  ; 
quoted  by  F.  J.  Turner,  The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American  History, 
p.  29. 

'  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i,  p.  124.  The  rule  here  stated 
had  many  exceptions. 


366  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

born  American  possessed  distinct  advantages  over  the 
European  as  a  border  fighter,  and  he  loved  his  work  and 
manner  of  Kfe.  In  that  class  of  self-reliant  frontiersmen 
the  native-born  of  German  descent  were  probably  as 
numerous  as  any  other  stock.  Impressions  have  been  re- 
corded, principally  by  writers  on  the  Scotch-Irish  element, 
giving  the  latter  preeminence  over  other  nationalities  in  the 
struggle  with  the  forests  and  Indians.  Any  claim  of  that 
sort  rests  upon  very  uncertain  foundations.  The  border- 
ers were  of  mixed  descent,  English,  German,  Scotch- 
Irish,  Scotch,  Irish,  Huguenot,  and  Welsh.  The  advant- 
age of  numbers  after  all  lay  with  the  Germanic  stock,* 
taking  both  the  English  and  Germans  together  as  distinct 
from  the  Celtic.  At  all  events,  as  time  went  on,  the  bal- 
ance of  advantaofe  must  have  inclined  more  and  more  in 
favor  of  the  Germanic  race,  because  the  latter,  as  contem- 
poraries all  agree,  were  in  the  end  more  stable,  prosperous, 
and  their  permanent  increase  was  larger.^ 

1  An  opposing  view  is  the  following  :  "  The  backwoodsmen  were  Americans 
by  birth  and  parentage,  and  of  mixed  race  ;  but  the  dominant  strain  in  their 
blood  was  that  of  Presbyterian  Irish,  —  the  Scotch-Irish,  as  they  were  often 
called.  They  were  in  the  West  almost  what  the  Puritans  were  in  the  North- 
east, and  even  more  than  the  Cavaliers  were  in  the  South.  Mingled  with  the 
descendants  of  many  other  races,  they  nevertheless  formed  the  kernel  of 
the  distinctively  and  intensely  American  stock  who  were  the  pioneers  of  our 
people  in  their  march  westward,  the  vanguard  of  the  army  of  fighting  set- 
tlers, who  with  axe  and  rifle  won  their  way  from  the  AUeghanies  to  the  Rio 
Grande  and  the  Pacific."  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  i,  pp. 
102  ff. 

'  One  of  the  few  available  tests  of  the  comparative  rates  of  increase  of 
various  nationalities  is  furnished  by  the  work  of  R.  R.  Kuczynski,  "  The  Fe- 
cundity of  the  Native  and  Foreign-born  Population  in  Massachusetts,"  The 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  November,  1901,  and  February,  1902.  While 
the  fecundity  of  the  Irish  Population  is  shown  to  be  great,  their  permanent 
rate  of  increase  stands  behind  the  German  and  most  other  nationalities.  Cf. 
also  the  statements  recorded  by  Toulmin  (see  above,  p.  364),  that  of  a  dozen 
families  of  each  nationality,  nine  German,  seven  Scotch,  and  only  four  Irish 
survived. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  367 

The  question  o£  superiority  of  any  particular  national 
type  over  others,  in  the  fight  with  the  wilderness  and  the 
savao^es,  is  rendered  all  the  more  difficult  because  of 
the  wonderful  leveling  influence  of  the  frontier  upon  all 
national  elements.  A  new  type  of  American  was  evolved  as 
a  result  of  frontier  conditions.  Physically  he  approached 
the  ideal  of  the  red  man,  with  his  gaunt  and  sinewy  frame 
inured  to  hardships  and  incapable  of  fatigue.  His  intel- 
lectual characteristics  have  been  described  as  follows :  ^ 
"  That  coarseness  and  strength  combined  with  acuteness 
and  inquisitiveness  ;  that  practical,  inventive  turn  of  mind, 
quick  to  find  expedients ;  that  masterful  grasp  of  material 
things,  lacking  in  the  artistic  but  powerful  to  effect  great 
ends ;  that  restless,  nervous  energy ;  that  dominant  indi- 
vidualism, working  for  good  and  for  evil;  and,  withal,  that 
buoyancy  and  exuberance  which  come  with  freedom,  — 
these  are  traits  of  the  frontier,  or  traits  called  out  else- 
where because  of  the  existence  of  the  frontier." 

Germans  or  men  of  German  descent,  that  came  under 
the  influence  of  frontier  conditions,  became  hunters,  In- 
dian fighters,  backwoodsmen,  miners,  or  whatever  later 
types  the  prevailing  conditions  made  of  them.  They  became 
indistinguishable  from  other  frontiersmen.  Great  numbers 
of  hunters  of  German  blood  were  found  among  the  early 
explorers  and  settlers  of  the  "  dark  and  bloody  ground." 
There  was  Johann  Sailing,  the  German  Indian,  who  under 
the  name  of  Menou,  "  the  Silent,"  was  made  a  member 
of  the  Cherokee  tribe.  He  fought  their  battles,  hunted 
their  game,  and  wooed  their  maidens  until  1742,  when  he 
was  captured  by  the  French  and  taken  to  Canada,  sub- 

>  F.  J.  Turner,  The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American  History,  pub- 
lished in  the  Fifth  Yearbook  of  the  National  Herhart  Society,  Chicago,  1899, 
p.  40.  Also  in  the  ^nnuaZ  Report  of  the  American  Historical  Association  for 
1893,  pp.  199-227. 


368  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

sequently  to  be  set  free/  With  Daniel  Boone  there  were 
Germans  on  most  of  his  expeditions.  Michael  Stoner 
(Steiner)  was  the  forefather  of  the  numerous  Kentucky 
Stoners  of  the  present  day.  Kaspar  Mansker,  or  Mansko, 
was  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the  Indian  fighters.  A 
wonderful  marksman  and  woodsman/  he  was  made  a  colo- 
nel of  the  frontier  militia.  The  crack  of  his  deadly  rifle, 
"Nancy,"  haunted  his  foes  like  a  message  of  doom. 
Though  not  a  native  German,  but  of  German  descent,  he 
spoke  only  broken  English.  He  knew  the  cries  of  the 
beasts  and  birds  and  could  never  be  deceived  by  Indian 
imitations  of  them.  Stories  of  his  Indian  fights  are  told 
without  number  by  Tennessee  writers. 

"Every  old  Western  narrative  contains  many  allusions 
to  '  Dutchmen,'  as  Americans  very  properly  [?]  call  the 
Germans.  Their  names  abound  on  the  muster-rolls,  pay- 
rolls, Hsts  of  settlers,  etc.,  of  the  day ;  but  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  they  are  often  anglicized,  when  nothing 
remains  to  show  the  origin  of  the  owners."^  A  "Dutch" 
station  was  established  on  Beargrass  Creek  (Jefferson 
County,  Kentucky),  in  1780."  At  Estill's  Station  and 
Hart's  Station  (1779),  there  were  "principally  families 
from  Pennsylvania  —  orderly,  respectable  people,  and  the 
men  good  soldiers,  most  of  whom  became  victims  of  the 
Indian  wars."  ^  Lawrenceburg,  the  county-seat  of  Ander- 
son County,  was  first  settled  by  an  "  old  Dutchman  by 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  pp.  401-408.  F.  W.  Hess,  Johann  Sailing, 
der  deutsche  Indianer.  , 

2  Roosevelt,  vol.  i,  pp.  150-153  ;  Carr's  Early  Times  in  Middle  Tennessee, 
pp.  52,  54,  56,  etc.  (Nashville,  Tenn.,  1859.) 

3  Koosevelt,  pp.  107  ff.  Reference  is  made  to  Blount  MSS.,  State  Depart- 
ment MSS.,  McAfee  MSS.,  American  State  Papers,  etc. 

*  Filson  Club  Publications,  no.  xi,  p.  26. 

5  Collins,  Historical  Sketches  of  Kentucky,  p.  421. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  369 

the  name  of  Coffman  "  (Kauf mann),  who  was  killed  by  the 
Indians/  Another  "  Dutchman  "  is  praised  for  his  good 
sense/  who,  in  company  with  Kenton,  Haggin,  and  others, 
would  not  wantonly  fire  into  an  Indian  camp,  remained 
seated  on  his  horse,  and  cantered  off  much  at  his  ease, 
when  the  others  were  hard-pressed  in  consequence  of  their 
rash  acts.  There  was  an  enterprising  "Dutchman  "  named 
Myers,  a  land-agent  and  general  locator  in  the  Ohio  Val- 
ley, "  in  whose  name  more  land  was  entered  than  in  that 
of  almost  any  other  man  in  the  West."^  These  examples 
might  be  multiplied.  Last  but  not  least  should  be  men- 
tioned the  "  Dutch  "  woman,  who  with  Mrs.  Mary  Ingles 
escaped  from  captivity  in  the  Indian  camp  at  Big  Bone 
Lick  (Boone  County,  Kentucky),  and  successfully  made 
the  journey,  mostly  on  foot,  and  without  provisions,  for 
hundreds  of  miles,  through  the  wilderness  of  Kentucky, 
following  the  Ohio  River,  then  the  Great  Kanawha  from 
its  outlet  up  to  the  New  River  country,  where  they  found 
rescue.  The  Dutch  woman  was  crazed  by  the  hardships 
and  jDrivations  of  the  journey,  almost  at  its  end,  and  at- 
tacked Mrs.  Ingles,  according  to  the  latter's  account,  in 
a  life  struggle.^  Mrs.  Ingles  secured  a  canoe  and  aban- 
doned her  companion;  both,  however,  completed  the  jour- 
ney and  survived.  They  were,  in  all  probability,  the  first 
white  women  who  saw  Kentucky. 

When  in  1784  the  separatist  spirit  gained  the  upper 

'  Collins,  p.  169.  His  wife  said  in  her  affliction  :  "I  always  told  my  old 
man  that  the  savage  Ingens  would  kill  him  ;  and  I  'd  rather  lost  my  best 
cow  at  the  pail  than  my  old  man." 

2  Collins,  p.  385. 

3  Collins,  p.  217. 

*  As  Mrs.  Ingles  declared,  with  cannibalistic  intent  (by  agreement).  It  is 
more  than  likely,  however,  that  the  struggle  occurred  for  possession  of  the 
canoe,  which  was  only  large  enough  for  one.  For  a  detailed  account,  see 
J.  P.  Hale,  Transallegheny  Pioneers,  pp.  41  fP. 


370  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

hand  in  the  Tennessee  area,  owing  to  disappointing  legis- 
lation by  the  United  States  government,  concerning 
the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  the  settlers  founded  the 
new  state  of  Frankland  or  Franklin,  with  Sevier  as 
governor.  His  adjutant-general  was  the  German,  Major 
Elholm,^  who  organized  the  militia  with  unusual  skill.  He 
became  very  popular  on  account  of  his  imperturbable 
good  humor,  and  his  musical  talent  likewise  won  the 
young  people,  who  looked  upon  a  campaign  under  him  as 
a  recreation. 

A  more  typical  man  of  the  frontier  was  Henry  Crist 
(Heinrich  Christ),^  born  in  1764  of  German  parents,  in 
Virginia.  In  1788  he  made  a  trip  in  a  flat-boat,  from 
Louisville,  on  the  Ohio,  to  Bullitt's  Lick,  for  the  purpose 
of  preparing  salt.  The  expedition  consisted  of  twelve  armed 
men  and  one  woman.  They  were  on  the  way  to  Mud  Garri- 
son, situated  midway  between  Bullitt's  Lick  and  the  falls 
of  the  Salt  River,  almost  where  the  town  of  Shepherdsville 
now  stands.  Arriving  in  the  Salt  River,  they  were  attacked 
by  Indians,  about  eight  miles  below  Rolling  Fork.  The 
battle  which  ensued  was  costlv.  Of  the  whites,  Crist  alone' 
survived,  but  he  was  frightfully  wounded.  Being  unable 
to  walk,  he  bound  his  moccasins  to  his  knees,  and  crawled 
in  the  direction  of  the  Licks.  He  almost  succumbed  from 
exhaustion  when  but  a  few  miles  distant  from  his  destina- 
tion. Bleeding  from  many  wounds,  his  clothes  torn  to 
shreds  by  briars  and  thorns,  he  was  discovered  by  a  negro. 
The  latter,  fearing  this  bleeding  piece  of  humanity  to  be 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ii,  p.  368  ;  J.  A.  Wagener,  Frankland  und 
Franklin. 

*  Collins,  Historical  Sketches  of  Kentucky,  pp.  217-220. 

'  Collins,  Historical  Sketches  of  Kentucky,  p.  219.  Crist's  companion  Crepps 
(German  name  Krebs),  who  had  fought  like  a  lion  and  made  his  escape, 
died  shortly  after  reaching  Long  Lick. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  371 

an  indication  of  an  Indian  attack,  rode  back  to  camp  at  full 
speed  and  gave  the  alarm.  Crist  was  carried  in  safety  to 
the  salt  camp,  but  it  took  a  full  year  for  him  to  recover 
completely  from  his  wounds.  The  woman  of  the  party 
was  taken  captive  by  the  Indians  and  later  exchanged, 
after  General  Wayne's  victories.  She  reported,  what  seems 
incredible,  that  of  the  Indian  party,  consisting  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  warriors,  about  thirty  were  killed; 
her  story  seems  to  indicate,  at  least,  that  the  twelve  whites 
in  this  battle  made  the  Indians  pay  dearly  for  their  victory. 
Crist  some  years  after  became  prominent  in  politics,  being 
chosen  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  the  state  of  Ken- 
tucky, and  in  1808  elected  to  the  United  States  Congress. 
He  died  in  1844  at  the  age  of  eighty. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  Indian  fighters  in  border 
history  was  Ludwig  Wetzel,  whose  career  concerns  chiefly 
the  settlement  of  the  Ohio  Valley.^  The  two  Sanduskys 
(Sodowskys),  German  Poles  from  the  Prussian  province 
of  Posen,  already  referred  to,  were  typical  hunters  and 
traders.  Jacob  Sandusky,  in  a  canoe,  paddled  down  the 
Cumberland  into  the  Ohio  River,  then  made  his  way  into 
the  Mississippi,  and  followed  its  interminable  course  all 
the  way  to  New  Orleans.  He  was  the  first  white  man  on 
record  to  do  this,  exclusive  of  the  French  and  Spaniards.^ 
Jacob  Sandusky  died  in  Jessamine  County,  Joseph,  in 
Bourbon  County,  Kentucky. 

The  most  brilliant  military  achievement  originating  in 
Kentucky  was  the  expedition  of  George  Rogers  Clark  in 
1778-79  against  Kaskaskia  (Illinois)  and  Vincennes  (In- 
diana). Clark  was  the  master  spirit  in  the  undertaking, 
and  was  a  Virginian  of  English  descent,  but  his  two  ablest 

*  It  will  therefore  be  given  attention  in  the  uext  chapter. 
^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  p.  262. 


372  THE   GERJ^IAN   ELEMENT 

lieutenants  were  Virginians  of  German  descent,  namely, 
Captain  Leonard  Helm  (Fauquier  County)  and  Major 
Joseph  Bowman  (Baumann,  of  Frederick  County).  Joseph 
Bowman  was  next  in  command  to  General  Clark,  and 
served  with  distinction  in  this  campaign.^  Other  Virginia 
Germans  among  the  volunteers  w^ere  Captain  Johann 
Holder,  Major  George  Michael  Bedinger  (adjutant  of 
Bowman),  Johann  Hager  (of  Ruddle's  Station),  Hans 
Sauter  and  Johann  Pleakenstalber  (Blickeustalwer).  Colo- 
nel John  Bowman,  as  county  lieutenant,  in  May,  1779, 
commanded  one  hundred  and  sixty  Kentuckians  in  an 
expedition  against  the  Ohio  Indian  towh  of  Chillicothe. 
The  Indian  town  was  surprised,  many  cabins  were  burned, 
and  horses  captured.  The  Indians  rallied  in  a  block- 
house, and  drove  off  their  enemies.  When  the  Indians 
pursued,  they  were  in  turn  driven  back.  The  loss  was 
nine  killed  and  two  or  three  wounded,  of  the  whites,  and 
two  killed  and  five  or  six  wounded,  of  the  Indians.  The 
attack  was  of  great  benefit  to  the  Kentuckians,  who  were 
inclined  to  blame  Bowman  for  defeat.  It  kept  the  Indi- 
ans from  making  an  inroad  into  Kentucky.  The  Indians 
were  very  badly  frightened.  "  The  expedition  undoubt- 
edly accomplished  more  than  Clark's  attack  on  Piqua 
next  year." " 

1  The  expedition  of  Clark  will  be  described  more  fully  in  a  succeeding 
chapter  (xiv),  ou  the  settlement  of  the  Northwest.  It  will  be  seen  there  that 
Bowman  and  Helm  were  the  two  lieutenants  intrusted  with  the  largest  re- 
sponsibilities. 

^  Cf.  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  pp.  96-97.  We  learn  that  "Logan,  Harrod,  and 
other  famous  frontier  fighters  went  along."  The  Germans  Johann  Bulger 
and  George  ^I.  Bedinger  (later  United  States  Congressman)  were  also  among 
those  that  took  part  in  Bowman's  expedition.  Cf .  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ii, 
p.  56.  Two  other  German  names  appear  prominently  in  the  conquest  of  the 
Northwest :  Houaker  and  Chrisman.  Cf.  The  Virginia  Magazine,  vol.  x,  p.  47. 
Cf.  also  W.  H.  English,  The  Conquest  of  the  Northwest  of  the  River  .Ohio, 
1778-83,  and  Life  of  General  Clark. 


IN   KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  373 

In  every  important  engagement,  whether  of  discovery 
or  warfare,  we  come  upon  German  names.  Thus  in  the 
fatal  battle  of  the  Blue  Licks,  August  19,  1782,  in  which 
the  rashness  of  Major  McGarry  prevailed  over  the  prud- 
ence of  Boone,  Major  Benjamin  Netherland  (Niederland) 
was  a  "  man  of  the  hour."  *  "  The  majority  of  the  men  who 
escaped  from  the  destructive  conflict  owed  their  preserva- 
tion to  Benjamin  Netherland,  —  a  fearless  man,  fruitful 
in  resources,  and  the  impersonation  of  nobleness  and 
courage."  Like  many  men  of  his  stock,  he  was  not  a  man 
of  bravado,  and  therefore  was  sometimes  suspected  of 
cowardice.  He  was  born  in  Powhatan  County,  Virginia, 
of  German  or  Dutch  descent,  served  under  Lincoln  in  the 
Southern  army  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  after  com- 
ing to  Kentucky  in  1787  was  one  of  the  most  prominent 
men  in  the  Indian  wars.  In  the  battle  of  the  Blue  Licks, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  he  exhibited  wonderful  cool- 
ness and  judgment.  Being  well  mounted  on  the  retreat, 
he  gained  the  ford  and  crossed  the  stream  in  advance  of 
many  others.  Looking  back,  he  saw  that  his  comrades, 
swimming  and  struggling  in  the  water,  were  at  the  mercy 
of  their  ferocious  enemies.  "He  dismounted  and  com- 
manded the  fleeing  horsemen  to  halt,  and  fire  upon  the 
Indians.  His  splendid  presence  —  he  was  six  feet  two 
inches  high  —  restored  the  spirit  of  the  fear-stricken 
riders.  A  dozen  or  twenty  men  instantly  obeyed  his  call, 
and  facing  about  with  Netherland,  they  opened  a  fatal 
and  deadly  fire  upon  the  foremost  of  the  pursuing 
savages.  The  counter-attack  was  so  sudden  and  unex- 
pected that  it  checked  the  fierce  pursuit  of  the  Indians, 
and  they  instantly  fell  back  from  the  opposite  bank." 

1  Filson  Club  Publications,  no.  xii,   pp.  183  ff.,  186-187.  K.  T.  Durett, 
Bryant's  Station. 


374  THE   GEEMAN   ELEMENT 

Another  Virginia  German  ^  in  this  battle  was  Major 
George  Michael  Bedinger,  born  in  Schafersdorf,  Vir- 
ginia, of  German  parents.  He  came  to  Boonesborough 
at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  and  was  one  of  ten  to  settle 
on  Muddy  Creek '  (Mason  County,  Kentucky).  In  1779 
he  served  with  distinction  under  Colonel  John  Bowman 
in  the  expedition  to  Old  Chillicothe.  In  1792  he  was  a 
member  of  the  legislature  of  Kentucky  for  Bourbon 
County,  and  from  1803  to  1807  was  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Confess. 

In  the  development  of  the  West,  three  classes  of  set- 
tlers have  commonly  been  enumerated^  as  representing 
successive  waves  of  pioneer  conquest.  First  comes  the 
hunter  or  trapper,  frequently  combining  with  the  pursuit 
of  game  the  functions  of  an  Indian  trader.  He  would 
build  a  rude  hut,  do  little  with  the  soil,  and  for  a  liveli- 
hood rely  mostly  on  hunting.  In  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
most  of  the  first  settlers  were  hunters,  rather  than  trap- 
pers or  traders.  Daniel  Boone  was  of  this  class,  and  his 
descendants  went  ever  farther  westward,  repeating  the 
same  service  for  advancing  civilization.  Immediately  after 
came  the  hunter-settler.  He  was  rather  a  cattle-raiser  and 
ranger  than  farmer.  He  did  his  work  roughly,  and  lived 
in  a  cabin  destitute  of  the  meanest  comforts.  His  field 
was  imperfectly  tilled,  blackened  stumps  and  girdled  trees 
stood  all  around,  showing  desperate  and  hasty  efforts.  He 
was  restless,  adventurous,  shiftless,  and  when  more  in- 

*  Several  others  are  also  named  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi,  p.  182  ; 
Jesse  Joeum,  Ludwig  Rose,  Peter  Harget. 

^  Two  other  Germans  accompanied  him,  Johannes  Haller  and  Thomas 
Schwearingen. 

3  Turner,  The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American  History,  pp.  26-27, 
who  quotes  also  Peck's  New  Guide  to  the  West  (Boston,  1837)  ;  Roosevelt, 
The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  iii,  pp.  208  ff.  Cf.  also  Dr.  Rush's  similar  views, 
as  given  in  Chapter  v,  above. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  375 

dustrious  neighbors  came  about  him,  he  felt  uncomfort- 
able and  would  escape  before  the  advance  of  civilization. 
He  sold  his  claim,  gathered  his  cattle  and  scanty  house- 
hold goods,  and  went  westward  into  the  wilderness,  to 
establish  another  advance  post.  "The  Lincolns,  the  fore- 
bears of  the  great  President,  were  a  typical  family  of  this 
class."  ^ 

The  third  class  of  settlers  were  the  thrifty  farmers. 
They  understood  the  business  of  farming,  possessed 
better  tools,  and  were  more  conservative.  They  came  to 
possess  the  land  and  bequeath  it  to  their  children.  They 
raised  big  crops  and  big  families,  cut  better  roads  through 
the  forests,  threw  strong  bridges  over  the  streams,  built 
mills  of  all  kinds,  established  industries,  laid  out  towns, 
and  planted  the  institutions  of  civilized  government. 
They  had  come  for  economic  reasons,  —  because  they 
were  children  of  large  families  seeking  an  independent 
position  for  themselves,  or  they  had  found  that  their 
former  location  was  not  so  good  as  they  hoped  their 
new  location  might  become.  But  they  had  no  intention 
of  remaining  pioneers  all  their  lives.  Some  few  of  the 
first  and  second  class  of  settlers  would  remain  with  the 
advance  of  the  third  class.  There  were  also  settlers  that 
combined  the  characteristics  of  all  three  classes,  starting 
as  hunters,  and  becoming  ultimately  prosperous  farmers, 
but  that  was  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 

A  foregoing  chapter  (v)  has  shown  to  what  class  of  the 
three  the  German  settlers  commonly  belonged.  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Rush  did  not  hesitate  to  put  them  into  the  class  of 
permanent  settlers.  While  such  a  disposal  of  them  reflects 
the  greatest  amount  of  credit  upon  the  Germans,  since 
authorities  agree  that  the  only  settlers  of  permanent  value 

^  Roosevelt,  vol.  iii,  p.  209. 


376  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

are  those  of  the  third  class,  still  we  should  be  unjust  to  the 
German  frontiersmen  if  we  should  deprive  them  of  their 
part  of  the  glory  of  having  subdued  the  forest  and  the 
Indian  with  axe  and  rifle.  Perhaps  a  greater  amount  of 
that  glory  belongs  to  other  nationalities,  but  the  more 
deeply  investigation  goes,  the  more  convincing  become 
the  evidences  of  the  large  share  of  the  German  pioneers  in 
overcoming  the  rage  of  the  warring  elements  and  savage 
men.  Many  instances  have  just  been  given  of  hunters, 
traders,  and  Indian  fighters  of  German  blood  in  Kentucky. 
Settlers  of  the  third  class,  who  located  near  or  on  the  fron- 
tier, suffered  more  than  any  of  the  others,  because  their 
goods  and  cattle  attracted  predatory  bands.  The  Irish  and 
Scotch  elements  in  general  possessed  a  temperament  more 
given  to  the  love  of  fighting  for  the  fight's  own  sake,  while 
the  German  fought  as  fiercely  and  as  well  when  his  house 
and  home  were  in  peril,  or  when  he  saw  some  definite  ob- 
ject to  be  attained.^  When  the  fighter  who  fought  merely 
for  the  love  of  it  was  born  among  them,  such  as  Ludwig 
Wetzel,  he  was  rather  the  exception  than  the  rule. 

It  is  not  generally  known  how  very  extensive  was  the 
share  of  the  German  pioneers  in  the  permanent  settlement 
of  the  best  farm-land  of  Kentucky,  namely,  the  Blue  Grass 
Region.  This  section  embraces  an  area  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  state,  the  eastern  boundary  of  which  is  a  line  drawn 
from  the  Ohio  River  opposite  Portsmouth,  extending  south- 
westwardly  to  the  confluence  of  the  Red  River  (on  the 
boundary  between  Clark  and  Estill  counties)  and  the  Ken- 
tucky River.    The  southern  and  western  boundaries  are 

*  It  is  interesting  iu  this  connection  to  note,  as  is  explained  in  the  chapter 
on  the  Civil  War  (Chapter  xvi),  that  the  German  element,  and  the  English 
also,  exceeded  the  Irish  element  in  the  enlistments,  in  proportion  to  their 
numhers.  Since  the  Germans  were  more  numerous  than  the  Irish,  their  total 
enrollment  also  was  larger. 


THE  BLUE-GRASS  REGION 


UTRAfrt 

Of  THE   ^^^ 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  377 

formed  by  the  Kentucky  River,  the  northern  boundary  by 
the  Ohio  River.  The  bluish-green  color  which  the  grass 
shows  here,  and  which  the  same  grass  loses  when  planted 
elsewhere,  has  given  the  region  its  name.  The  whole  area 
is  very  fertile,  tobacco,  wheat,  maize,  flax,  and  hemp  being 
the  best  products ;  the  horses  and  cattle  of  this  region  are 
famous.  From  the  earliest  time  the  Germans  from  Virginia 
and  the  Carolinas,  or  their  descendants,  were  attracted,  as 
were  the  other  settlers,  by  the  offers  of  cheap  land.  The 
building  of  a  block-house  and  one  harvest,  however  small, 
secured  the  possession  of  four  hundred  acres  of  land  and  a 
preemption  of  one  thousand  acres  more.^  This  system,  valid 
under  the  laws  of  Virginia,  was  to  terminate  in  1780.  The 
desire  to  enter  under  these  privileges  before  the  time  had 
elapsed  brought  crowds  of  settlers  to  Kentucky.  The  In- 
dians noticed  this  influx  of  settlers  with  resentment,  and 
troubles  broke  out  at  once,  but  the  tide  of  immigration 
could  not  permanently  be  held  back. 

Among  the  eight  men  chosen  to  lay  out  the  city  of  Lex- 
ington, in  1781,  were  John  A.  Seitz  and  George  Tegersen. 
A  plan  was  completed  on  September  26  of  the  same  year, 
and  sixty-two  building-lots  were  sold,  among  others  to  the 
following  Germans :  Nickolaus  Brobsten,  William  Martin, 
senior,  and  his  three  sons,  John  and  William  Niblich,  Karl 
Seemann,  Joseph  Weller,  and  Johannes  Weimar.  Between 
1782  and  1783  there  settled  also  the  following  Germans 
in  Lexington :  Christopher  Kistner  and  his  mother,  George 
Schiifer,  Bernard  Niederland,  and  the  brothers  Adam, 
Jacob  and  Christopher  Zumwald.^  The  first  pioneer  hunters 

*  See  specimens  of  certificates  of  Michael  Stoner  and  others  in  H.  Marshall, 
The  History  of  Kentucky,  vol.  i,  p.  100.  (Frankfort,  Ky.,  1824.^ 

'  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi,  pp.  65-72,  etc.  These  names  were  taken 
from  land  records  by  H.  A.  Rattermann,  editor  of  Der  deutsche  Pionier.  Cf. 


378  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  and  in  the  Blue  Grass  Region  had 
been:  George  Jager  (Yeager),  Michael  Stoner  (Steiner), 
John  Harman  (Hermann),  John  Haggin  (Hagen),  Joseph 
and  Jacob  Sodowsky  (Sandusky),  Peter  Nieswanger, 
Michael  Schuck,  Leonard  Helm,  Abraham  Hite,  Abraham 
Schoplein  (Chaplin).^  Some  of  these  became  permanent  set- 
tlers. Among  the  Germans  at  Bryant's  Station  were  Jacob 
Bohler,  who  had  a  good  house  and  farm  in  1780,"  and  also 
the  two  friends  Philip  Niederland  and  Balthazar  Kurz.^ 

In  1783  Kentucky  was  by  act  of  the  Virginia  legisla- 
ture made  an  independent  court  district.  One  of  the  first 
three  judges  was  George  Muter,  son  of  a  German  father 
and  a  Scotch  mother.  He  Avas  born  in  Madison  County, 
Virginia,  and  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  organization 
of  the  state  of  Kentucky.  He  made  a  decision  against 
Simon  Kenton  in  the  matter  of  land  claims  (McConnell 
against  Kenton),  favoring  the  strict  interpretation  of  the 
law.  His  decision  occasioned  a  storm  of  opposition,  since 
most  titles  in  Kentucky  were  not  clear.  An  attempt  was 
made  by  the  legislature  to  remove  the  judges,  Muter  and 
Sebastian,  but  without  success.  Muter  resigned  in  1795. 
Partisanship  was  violent  in  those  days,  but  Muter  had 

his  articles  entitled  :  "  Die  deutschen  Pioniere  von  Lexington,  Kentucky,  nebst 
Notizen  iiber  die  ersten  Ansiedler  der  Blue  Grass  Region."  Der  deutsche  Pio- 
nier,  vols,  x  and  xi.  Other  articles  of  Rattermann  on  the  Kentucky  Germans 
are  contained  in  volumes  ix  and  xii.  Rattermann  has  proved,  what  was  not 
known  before,  that  the  German  element  participated  largely  in  the  early  set- 
tlement of  the  Blue  Grass  Region,  though  a  good  many  of  his  statements  in 
detail  must  be  viewed  cautiously. 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x,  p.  273. 

^  He  was  the  same  that  lost  two  sons  in  the  battle  of  the  Brandywine. 

3  Cf.  Didaskalia,  Die  ersten  Kentuckier.  (Baltimore,  1848.)  The  descend- 
ants of  Bohler  spell  the  name  Baylor,  those  of  Niederland,  Netherland.  Kurz 
was  changed  to  Short.  (Not  all  of  the  name  Short,  of  course,  are  of  the  Kurz 
family.)  Collins,  History  of  Kentucky,  vol.  ii,  pp.  173  and  772  ;  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vol.  x,  p.  373. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE     379 

fearlessly  done  his  duty  as  he  saw  it.  In  consideration  of 
his  services  to  the  state,  Muter  was  voted  a  pension  in 
1806  by  the  legislature  of  Kentucky,  but  this  was  recalled 
in  1809.  With  Judge  Muter  as  presiding  officer,  a  meet- 
ing was  held  in  Lexington,  May  24,  1794,  when  resolu- 
tions were  passed  almost  revolutionary  in  character.  They 
furnish  an  illustration  of  the  spirit  of  separatism  that  ex- 
isted on  the  western  frontier.  The  resolutions  maintained 
that  the  protection  of  the  frontier  was  a  duty  of  the 
United  States  government,  and  demanded  for  Americans 
the  right  of  free  passage  on  the  Mississippi  (denied  by  the 
Spaniards),  though  such  a  right  be  obtainable  only  by 
force.^  Muter  was  a  member  of  the  German  Reformed 
Church  in  Lexington  and  the  first  president  of  the  Cale- 
donian Society,  the  latter  office  showing  his  descent  from 
a  Scotch  mother. 

The  first  college  in  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio,  Transyl- 
vania Seminary,  the  first  higher  institution  of  learning 
west  of  the  Alleghanies,^  received  its  first  charters  in  1780 
and  1783,  by  act  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia. 
In  1792  the  school  was  permanently  located  at  Lexington, 
and,  uniting  with  the  Kentucky  Academy  in  1798,  the 
institution  received  the  name,  "  Transylvania  University." 
Colonel  John  Bowman,  first  military  governor  of  "  the 
county  of  Kentucky,"  George  Muter,  and  Jacob  Froman 
were  among  the  first  trustees  of  Transylvania  Seminary. 
John  Lutz,  A.M.,  a  professor  of  the  institution,  was 
during  a  short  period  president  ^ro  tern.  Benjamin  Gratz, 
whose  father,  born  in  Silesia,  was  a  prominent  merchant 
of  Philadelphia,  became  a  trustee  and  patron  of  Transyl- 

*  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi,  p.  427,  gives  the  resolution,  quoting  the 
Centinel  of  the  Northwestern  Territory,  June  14,  1794. 
2  The  University  of  Tennessee  (Nashville)  dates  from  1785. 


380  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

vanla.  The  Bowman  family  were  very  energetic  promoters 
of  the  cause  of  education  in  Kentucky.  Three  brothers 
were  the  first  three  patrons  of  Kentucky  University, 
starting  the  subscription  with  one  thousand  dollars  each. 
John  B.  Bowman  devoted  more  than  twenty  years,  with- 
out salary,  to  the  building  up  of  Kentucky  University, 
raising  the  endowment  to  two  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
and  through  his  exertions  Transylvania  was  consolidated 
with  Kentucky  University  in  1865.^ 

The  Lexington  Immigration  Society  printed  their  cir- 
culars also  in  German,  to  get  immigrants  of  that  nation- 
ality. The  first  record-books  of  Lexington  were  destroyed 
by  fire,  and  the  oldest  existing  volume  dates  from  1796. 
A  number  of  Germans,  owners  of  land,  in  that  year  sold 
their  property,  while  others  were  purchasers.^  The  first 
lottery  in  Kentucky  was  established  by  Germans,  to  found 
a  German  Reformed  Church  near  Lexington.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1792,  the  following  men  composed  the  vestry  of  the 
so-called  Dutch  Presbyterian  Society  (which  meant  a  con- 
gregation of  the  German  Reformed  Church) :  Schmidt 
(Smith),  Schwab  (Swope),  Kerstner  (Carsner),  Kassel 
(Castle),  Keyser  (Kiser).^ 

The  counties  bordering  on  Fayette  (in  which  the  town 

1  Filson  Club  Publications,  no.  xi,  Transylvania  University,  by  Robert 
Peter  and  Johanna  Peter,  p.  20,  etc.  (1896.)  Cf.  also  Ranck,  History  of  Lex- 
ington. 

^  German  names  recorded  under  the  sale  of  lands  were:  Reybolt,  Wilk- 
ing,  Keyser,  Hartmann,  Rochus,  Kruse,  Helm,  Schiner,  Lischmann.  Under 
purchasers  of  land  in  and  about  Lexington  :  Franks,  Liitzel,  Georg  Jung, 
Kiihn,  Lingenfetter,  Gartner,  Poyzer,  and  Weibel.  {Deed  Records,  vol.  A.) 
Poyzer  was  the  first  drygoods  merchant  in  Lexington.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pio- 
nier,  vol.  xi,  p.  430. 

'  The  following  were  German  settlers  belonging  to  the  congregation  : 
Lemkert  (Lamkard),  Springel  (Springle),  Keyser  (Kiser),  Weber  (Webber), 
Adam(s),  Hagert  (Haggard),  Boshardt  (Bushart),  Howe  (of  North  Ger- 
man origin),  and  Meyer  (Myers). 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  381 

of  Lexington  is  situated)  likewise  contained  early  German 
settlers.  So  it  was  with  Jessamine/  Woodford/  Scott/ 
and  Harrison  counties. 

The  counties  opposite  the  present  city  of  Cincinnati, 
Boone,  Kenton,  and  Campbell,  had  early  German  settlers. 
In  Boone  County  there  settled,  in  1785,  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Ohio  a  family  by  the  name  of  Tanner.  Its  head  was 
Johannes  Tanner,  a  name  once  spelled  Danner  (or  Gerber), 
as  the  descendants  in  Boone  County  believe.^  Johannes 
Tanner  was  a  Dunker  preacher  who  had  settled  in  Virginia. 
Friction  with  the  other  denominations  (the  preachers  Stover 
and  Henkel)  led  to  his  removal  to  Pennsylvania,  and  sub- 
sequently to  Kentucky.  Both  of  his  sons  were  kidnapped 
by  the  Indians,  which  caused  him  to  migrate  once  more, 
in  1798,  to  New  Madrid,  in  Missouri.  Before  Tanner  re- 
moved to  Missouri  several  German  Dunker  families  had 
settled  at  Tanner's  Station  (later  called  Bullittsburg), 
among  them  the  families  Dewees,  Matheus,  and  Schmidt 
(Mathews  and  Smith).  Many  other  German  settlers,  from 
Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  down  to  Madison  County,  Vir- 
ginia, were  attracted  by  the  good  reports  from  the  orig- 
inal settlers.  In  1800  Ludwig  Rausch  made  his  way  to 
Boone  County,  and  his  journey  induced  many  others  to 
follow^    a    few    years    later.  The    city  of    Florence  was 

^  The  Priors,  Millers,  Poythress',  were  among  them.  Francis  Poythress 
was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  German  Methodism  in  Kentucky.  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vol.  xii,  p.  298. 

2  Collins,  vol.  ii,  p.  767,  says  Woodford  County  was  settled  by  emigrants 
from  Virginia  and  West  Virginia,  but  there  were  also  several  families  from 
North  Carolina,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Jersey,  as  well  as  a  re- 
spectable number  of  Irish  and  Germans. 

3  There  were  not  many  Germans  in  Scott  County  ;  among  them  were 
Jacob  Stucker,  who  had  a  farm  on  the  North  Elkhorn  River,  and  from 
whom  the  Indians  in  1788  stole  three  horses. 

*  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xii,  p.  68. 

^  The  following  names  denote  heads  of  families  settled  in  1805,  and  after, 


382  THE   GEEMAN  ELEMENT 

founded  in  1820  by  Wilhelm  Wilheut  (the  descendants 
write  the  name  Wilhoyt),  Heinrich  Crysler  (Kreusler),  and 
Jacob  Kohnmer  (Conner).  The  settlement  grew  and  had 
a  Lutheran  preacher,  William  Carpenter/  who  served  the 
congregations  in  the  Ohio  Valley  below  Pittsburg. 

The  neighboring  county  of  Kenton  contains  the  town 
of  Covington,  opposite  Cincinnati.  The  name  Covington 
came  from  Leonhard  Covington,  who  was  born  in  Mary- 
land. His  father  was  of  a  noble  family,  from  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Neubreisach,  in  Upper  Alsace,  who  in  1697 
wrote  their  name  Korfingthan  or  Kurfingthan.  The  father 
came  over  before  the  Revolution,  as  an  officer  of  the 
French,  was  captured,  settled  in  Maryland,  and  later 
fought  in  the  War  of  Independence.^  One  of  the  early 
governors  of  Kentucky  was  Christopher  Greenup,  after 
whom  a  county  has  been  named.  It  is  claimed  that  he 
was  of  German  Virofinian  orig-in,  his  name  bavin gf  been 
Griinup.^  One  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  Kenton  County 
was  Edmund  Rittenhouse,  a  relative  of  the  famous  Ger- 
man-American astronomer,  David  Rittenhouse.  Wilhelm 
Martin  married  Rittenhouse's  daughter  Marguerita,  and 

in  Boone  County  :  Hoffmann,  Raiise  (Rouse),  Tanner  (several  heads  of 
families),  Haus,  Zimniermann  (commonly  changed  to  Carpenter),  Ayler 
(Eiler),  Biemann,  Rausch,  Holsklaus  (Holzklo),  and  Utz  ;  most  of  these 
came  from  Virginia,  as  the  names  indicate.  Holzklo  will  be  remembered 
as  the  name  of  the  old  schoolmaster-preacher  of  Madison  County,  Virginia. 
Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xii,  p.  71  ;  Rattermann,  Eine  alte  deutsche 
Gemeinde  in  Kentucky. 

^  His  father,  Wilhelm  Zimmermann,  was  a  Palatine  who  arrived  in  1720. 
His  son  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War  under  Muhlenberg,  from  whom 
he  received  the  suggestion  to  enter  the  ministry.  Carpenter  was  a  prominent 
minister,  from  1813.  The  first  vestrymen  were  Daniel  Biemann,  Rausch, 
and  Tanner.  One  hundred  and  seventy-seven  members  signed  the  church 
document.  They  are  named  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xii,  pp.  97-98.  Car.- 
penter  founded  a  school  at  once, 

^  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  p.  261. 

3  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  p.  261. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  383 

their  child,  Isaac  Martin,  born  May  4,  1798,  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  first  white  child  born  in  Kenton  County. 
Another  early  settler  was  Johannes  Piper,  who  arrived 
in  1795  (his  parents,  coming  from  North  Germany,  had 
settled  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  in  1742),  and  still  another, 
G.  M.  Bedinger,  adjutant  of  Colonel  Bowman,  whose 
descendants  still  live  around  Covington.  Between  1810 
and  1825  a  number  of  German  settlers  took  up  their 
abode  in  the  county,  among  them  the  Schinkels.* 

In  Campbell  County  the  Germans  were  active  in  the 
first  settlement  of  Newport,  and  the  building  of  the  roads 
and  mills  on  the  banks  of  the  Licking,  as  well  as  improv- 
ing the  land  by  cultivation.  Johann  Busch  received  the 
right  to  run  a  ferry  ^  across  the  Ohio  opposite  North  Bend. 
In  1795-96  Heinrich  Brascher  was  judge  of  the  court 
in  Campbell  County,  and  Johannes  Bartel,  brewer,  inn- 
keeper, and  farmer,  in  1796 ;  Franz  Spielman  followed  as 
judge  in  1799.^  To  the  south  Gallatin,  Grant,  and  Pendle- 
ton counties  all  had  early  German  settlers,  the  descend- 
ants of  whom  were  influential  in  state  politics.^ 

In  Franklin  County  the  settlement  of  Frankfort,  the 
county-seat,  and  capital  of  the  state  of  Kentucky,  is  of 
interest  to  Germans.  Its  name  implies  German  settlers, 
but  its  early  history  is  obscure.  Collins  ^  names  the  follow- 
ing as  the  founders :  General  Jacob  Wilkinson,  Daniel 
Gano,  and  Daniel  Weissiger,  and  the  date  as  1787.  In 

^  A  list  of  names  can  be  seen  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  Ix,  pp.  309-315. 

^  Germans  were  frequently  the  ferrymen  at  river-crossings.  Thus  Harper 
on  the  Potomac,  at  Harper's  Ferry.  See  also,  below,  the  ferry  at  Maysville. 

^  Der  deutsche  •Pionier,  vol.  ix,  p.  191. 

*  Steven  Drescher  in  1822  was  a  member  of  the  state  legislature,  Samuel 
T.  Hauser  in  1832,  Samuel  F.  Schwab  (Swope)  from  1837  to  1841  (and 
state  senator  1844-1848),  and  William  W.  Dietrich  (Deadrick)  from  1871 
to  1873.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xii,  p.  446. 

^  Collins,  History  of  Kentucky,  vol.  ii,  p.  707. 


384  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

the  register  of  1802  Rattermann  found  a  large  number 
of  English,  Irish,  and  German  names.  Weissiger  gathered 
about  him  a  large  number  of  Germans  *  and  descendants 
of  Germans  in  Frankfort  (many  of  them  from  Frankfort- 
on-the-Main).  Little  is  known  of  Weissiger;  there  is  a 
record  that  in  1797  he  was  the  possessor  of  a  billiard- 
table,  for  which  he  paid  taxes;  he  was  the  owner  of  one 
of  six  wagons  in  Frankfort.  Frankfort  seems  to  have  been 
a  gay  town  according  to  the  frontier  notion,  possessing  a 
theatre  for  a  time.  In  order  to  check  the  passion  for  gam- 
bhng,  the  establishment  of  a  library  was  attempted,  which, 
however,  proved  a  failure.  Whether  or  not  the  French  and 
German  population  had  anything  to  do  with  the  gayety  of 
the  town  is  a  moot  question. 

In  Bracken  County  the  towns:  Germantown,  second  in 
size  in  the  county,  Berlin,  and  possibly  Augusta,  Milford, 
and  Foster  are  of  German  origin.  The  county  has  its 
name  from  Matthias  Bracken  (a  German  name),  a  sur- 
veyor who  came  to  Kentucky  with  Captain  Thomas  Bul- 
litt, and  laid  out  Frankfort.^ 

Maysville  (in  Mason  County)  is  the  oldest  town  on  the 
Ohio  below  Pittsburg.  Among  its  earliest  settlers  were 
Hans  and  Edward  Waller.  The  father  of  Waller,  com- 
monly called  "  Old  Ned,"  is  claimed  to  have  been  one 
of  the  early  settlers  of  Germanna,  Spottsylvania  County, 
Virginia.  His  son  brought  him  to  Kentucky  about  1785. 
They  had  had  difficulties  at  Germanna  and  withdrew  to 
the  Shenandoah  Valley  in  1770,  whence  they  migrated 

1  Such  names  are  given  by  Rattermann  as  Braun,  Cammach,  Casselmann, 
Hickmann,  Jiinger,  Rauling,  Rennick,  Saltzmann,  Schmidt,  Vorhees,  Mel- 
anchton,  and  Springer.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xii,  pp.  300-301.  Dr.  Louis 
Marschall  was  the  first  physician  of  Frankfort  and  father  of  Humphrey 
Marshall,  noted  in  both  the  civil  and  military  history  of  Kentucky.  Cf. 
Roseugarten,  The  German  Soldier  in  the  Wars  of  the  United  States,  p.  158. 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xii,  p,  447. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  385 

again  to  the  Opequon  River.  There  young  Waller  met 
Simon  Kenton  and  went  with  him  to  Kentucky.  The  two 
Wallers  and  George  Lewis  were  the  real  founders  of 
Maysville/  which  up  to  1800  bore  the  name  of  Limestone 
Point.  In  1781:  Hans  Waller,  in  company  with  Johannes 
Miiller,  went  to  the  Middle  Fork  of  the  Licking  River, 
near  the  Upper  Blue  Licks.  They  settled  thirteen  miles 
south  of  the  Blue  Licks  and  founded  Miller's  Station.  In 
1797  the  court  of  Mason  County  allowed  Edwin  Martin 
to  run  a  ferry  from  Maysville  across  the  Ohio."  Martin 
bought  of  the  heirs  of  John  May,  who  gave  the  name  to 
Maysville,  all  purchasable  lots,  and  remained  in  charge 
of  the  ferry  until  1829.  In  1818  Joseph  Ficklin  also  re- 
ceived the  privilege  of  runnmg  a  ferry  across  the  Ohio 
from  Maysville.^ 

In  addition  to  searching  through  the  land  records  of 
the  Blue  Grass  Region,  H.  A.  Rattermann,  editor  of  "Der 
deutsche  Pionier,"  examined  the  pension  lists  at  Wash- 
ington of  the  years  1818,  1828,  and  1832,  mentioned  in 
the  reports  of  1835.  He  there  noted  the  names  of  the 
officers  and  men  of  the  German  regiments  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  who  received  land-grants  in  Heu  of  cash 
payments.  It  appears  that  a  large  number  of  the  German 
soldiers  of  the  Revolution,  particularly  of  the  Virginia 
line,  availed  themselves  of  the  privilege  of  obtaining  lands 
in  the  Blue  Grass  Region  of  Kentucky,  in  the  counties 
of  Jessamine,  Woodford,  Franklin,  Scott,  Owen,  Grant, 
Boone,  Campbell,  Pendleton,  Bracken,  and  Mason.' 

1  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi,  pp.  72  and  181. 

2  The  first  to  do  this  had  been  Benjamin  Sutton.  Der  deutsche  Pionier, 
vol.  xii,  p.  448. 

3  lUd. 

*  Many  pages  of  German  names  of  officers  and  men,  in  the  Continental 
army  and  the  militia,  during  the  Revolutionary  War  and  the  War  of  1812, 


386  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

These  statistics  furnish  a  most  convincing  proof  that 
the  central  and  western  areas  of  the  Blue  Grass  Region 
were  settled  very  early  by  Germans.  From  another  source 
we  learn  that  the  Germans  had  also  settled  in  the  eastern 
edge  of  the  Blue  Grass  Region.  In  1813  the  Lutheran 
ministers  Scherer  and  Gobel  found  Germans  settled  in 
Tygart's  Valley,  "who  had  united  themselves  with  the 
Baptists  and  Methodists."  *  Thus  it  appears  that  also 
in  the  great  trans- Alleghany  limestone  area,  that  of  Ken- 
tucky, the  German  farmers  arrived  early  and  took  a 
strong  hold. 

An  interesting  view  of  the  spread  of  the  German  settle- 
ments to  the  westward  is  furnished  by  the  reports  of  the 
Lutheran  missionaries  of  the  North  Carolina  Synod,  which 
was  organized  in  1803.  The  Reverend  R.  J.  Miller^ 
journeyed  southwestwardly  from  Abingdon,  Washington 
County,  Virginia.  In  Sullivan  County,  Tennessee,  he  re- 
ports having  found  German  congregations  in  charge  of 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Smith.  Before  his  arrival  they  had  been 
attended,  as  he  says,  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Sink  (Zink), 
now  gone  to  Kentucky.  The  fact  is  very  worthy  of  note 

who  received  land-grants  in  the  counties  named  above,  are  given  by  Ratter- 
mann,  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xii,  pp.  298-305,  444-450.  The  investiga- 
tion might  well  be  renewed  and  supplemented  by  researches  in  the  archives 
of  the  War  Department. 

1  Cf .  Bernheim,  History  of  the  German  Settlements  and  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  North  and  South  Carolina,  p.  389,  etc.  The  latter  work  is  based  upon  the 
Urlsperger  and  Helmstadt  reports,  church  records,  minutes  of  synods,  and 
private  journals.  The  facts  contained  in  the  succeeding  paragraphs  are  de- 
rived from  Bernheim. 

2  The  Reverend  Robert  Johnson  Miller,  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  fought  in 
the  patriot  army  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  after  peace  was  declared 
lived  in  the  South.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Methodist  Conference, 
yet,  not  having  the  authority  to  administer  the  sacraments,  his  people  of 
White  Haven  Church  in  Lincoln  County,  North  Carolina,  sent  a  petition  to 
the  Lutheran  pastors  of  Cabarrus  and  Rowan  counties,  praying  that  he  might 
be  ordained  by  them,  which  was  accordingly  done.  He  was  probably  the  first 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE  387 

that  he  found  several  congregations  on  the  Holston  ^  River 
as  early  as  1803.  They  must  have  settled  there  long  before, 
to  have  become  so  numerous.  The  fact  also  is  significant 
that  Mr.  Sink,  the  preacher,  went  to  Kentucky,  undoubt- 
edly to  German  congregations  who  had  settled  there.  This 
shows  the  drift  of  the  times.  Miller  wrote  in  his  reports  : 
"  I  preached  in  all  congregations  and  in  other  places,  par- 
ticularly in  Blountsville  [county-seat  of  Sullivan  County]; 
met  Reverend  Smith,  an  honest,  upright  man.  Both  he 
and  his  congregations  are  glad  to  be  connected  with  our 
minister! um  [of  North  Carolina].  Preached  at  Cove  Creek 
October  11,  to  large  and  attentive  congregations."  Con- 
cerning the  use  of  the  German  language  in  the  western 
settlements,^  the  Reverend  Mr.  Miller  remarks  :  "  Among 
the  old  Germans  there  is  a  standing  still;  their  youth  learn 
and  speak  English ;  if  a  teacher  speaks  German,  it  is  to 
them  like  the  sound  of  a  church-bell.  But  the  affair  is  the 
Lord's." 

In  1813  the  Reverend  Jacob  Scherer,  accompanied  by 
another  German  minister,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Gobel,  was 
sent  on  a  missionary  tour  to  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Ten- 
nessee. After  leaving  Ohio  they  arrived  in  Powell's  Val- 
ley, where  there  were  many  people  from  North  Carolina 
and  "  several  congregations  could  be  formed."  Scherer 
preached  in  Grassy  Valley,  and  the  next  day  arrived  at 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Smith's  (on  the  Holston  River),  who 
accompanied  him  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  nineteenth 
of  July,  for  Mr.  Gobel  had  left  him  there.  On  tlie  twenti- 

Lutheran  clergyman  who  preached  in  English  in  the  South  or  Southwest, 
and  was  selected  as  a  missionary  for  his  ability  to  preach  in  English. 

'  The  name  of  this  river  is  frequently  spelled  "  Holstein."  There  may  be 
some  significance  in  this  German  spelling,  which  occurred  very  early. 

^  The  missionary  says  this  of  the  western  settlements  of  South  Carolina, 
but  his  point  is  undoubtedly  applicable  to  the  settlements  of  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  and  elsewhere,  as  well. 


388  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

eth  he  formed  another  congregation  on  the  fork  of  the 
Holston  (he  calls  it  Holstein),  and  on  the  next  day  preached 
in  "Rossler's"  church.  He  preached  also  in  "Bueller's" 
church,  and  in  a  new  church  on  the  middle  fork  of  the 
Holston  in  Washington  County,  Virginia;  then  before 
another  isolated  congregation  which  had  never  yet  been 
visited,  on  the  north  fork  of  the  Holston.  He  soon  arrived 
in  the  district  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Flohr,  who  was  the 
Lutheran  minister  for  a  very  large  portion  of  western 
Virginia  (including  portions  of  present  West  Virginia). 
In  conjunction  with  the  Reverend  Mr.  Miller,  he  (Scherer) 
altogether  organized  thirteen  congregations  consisting  of 
eleven  hundred  and  seventy-five  members  (1813). 

The  great  sweep  of  immigration  to  the  Southwest  did 
not  take  place  before  the  Louisiana  Purchase  in  1803. 
Then  it  was  that  glowing  reports  of  the  fertility  of  the 
lands  in  the  Southwest  were  spread  broadcast,  and  ad- 
vantaofeous  offers  w^ere  made  to  the  settlers  to  secure  for 
themselves  homes  "  without  money  and  without  price." 
Many,  accordingly,  sold  their  possessions  in  North  Caro- 
lina and  Virginia,  and  migrated  to  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky and  to  the  Southwest,  or  otherwise,  to  the  north  of 
the  Ohio  River.  In  April,  1812,  the  North  Carolina  Synod 
admitted  nine  congregations  in  Tennessee  as  follows: 
Zion's  and  Roller's,  in  Sullivan  County ;  Brownsboro  and 
another  (name  not  mentioned),  in  Washington  County; 
Patterson,  Sinking  Spring,  and  Cove  Creek,  in  Greene 
County ;  Lonax  and  Thomas,  in  Knox  and  Blount  coun- 
ties.^ In  succeeding  years  petitions  for  preachers  came  to 
the  North  Carolina  Synod  from  Sevier  County,  Tennessee, 

1  These  nine  congregations  were  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  Reverend 
C.  Z.  K.  Smith,  after  whose  death,  in  1814,  the  Reverend  Philip  Henkel  took 
his  place. 


IN  KENTUCKY  AND  TENNESSEE     38^ 

and  subsequently  from  Franklin,  Lincoln,  and  Bedford 
counties,  Tennessee.  The  Lutherans  had  become  so  num- 
erous in  eastern  and  southern  Tennessee,  in  the  second 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  that  in  1820  a  separate 
synod  was  formed,  namely,  the  Tennessee  Synod.  At  the 
first  meeting,  July  17,  German  was  made  the  business 
language  of  the  synod,  and  all  of  its  transactions  were  to 
be  printed  in  that  language.  In  1825  the  minutes  of  the 
synod  were  printed  also  in  English ;  during  the  first  three 
days  of  the  synod  of  1827  German  was  the  official  lan- 
guage, but  ever  afterwards  English.  The  leaders  of  Luth- 
eranism  found  that  the  church  grew  much  more  rapidly 
when  the  English  langfuao-e  was  used  in  divine  service 
and  in  the  affairs  of  the  denomination.  Before  1820  a 
Lutheran  seminary  on  a  small  scale  had  been  begun  in 
Greene  County,  Tennessee,  under  the  supervision  of 
Henkel  and  Bell.  Theology,  Greek,  Latin,  German,  and 
English  were  taught.  When  the  Lutheran  seminary  was 
established  at  Lexington,^  South  Carolina,  the  Greene 
County  institution  in  Tennessee  had  long  ceased  to  exist. 
With  these  evidences  of  settlement  and  activity  by  the 
Germans  in  Tennessee,  and  a  far  greater  number  in  the 
state  of  Kentucky,  it  is  clear  that  the  German  element 
was  very  largely  concerned  with  the  great  initial  move- 
ment of  Western  development  at  the  Southwest,  which 
preceded  the  opening  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  The  location 
of  the  German  settlers  on  the  frontier,  as  illustrated  by 

'  The  theological  seminary  and  classical  school  of  Lexington,  South 
Carolina,  went  into  operation  on  the  first  Monday  in  January,  1834.  The 
Reverend  E.  L.  Hazelius,  D.D.,  a  native  of  Silesia,  Prussia,  was  the  first 
professor  of  theology,  and  he  served  for  twenty  years,  until  his  death.  The 
influence  of  the  seminary  was  quickly  felt  in  the  Lutheran  Church  of  the 
Carolinas.  A  larger  number  of  ministers  of  good  training  were  soon  avail- 
able for  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  states.  Cf .  Bernheim,  pp.  507  £P. 


^90  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

the  map  of  German  settlements  in  1775  (after  p.  263), 
and  their  migratory  spirit,  as  described  in  the  reports  of 
the  Keverend  H.  M.  Muhlenberg,  might  have  been  ac- 
cepted without  further  evidence  as  a  proof  that  the  Ger- 
man pioneers  crossed  the  Appalachian  Mountain  ranges 
at  every  possible  point  and  at  the  earliest  opportunity. 
Yet  they  have  never  received  credit  for  this  historical 
fact.  The  materials  brought  forward  in  this  chapter  have 
long  remained  hidden  in  places  difficult  of  access,  such 
as  the  volumes  of  "Der  deutsche  Pionier,"  or  in  the  ob- 
scure corners  of  local  and  state  histories.  It  was  necessary, 
therefore,  to  present  a  large  amount  of  detail  for  the  pur- 
poses of  proof,  at  the  risk  frequently  of  wearying  the 
reader. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    WINNING    OF   THE    WEST 

II.    THE    SETTLEMENTS    OF    THE    OHIO    VALLEY 

German  traders,  hunters,  and  missionaries  in  the  Ohio  territory  —  Causes 
for  slow  development  —  Pontiac's  War  —  Colonel  Bouquet — The  first 
permanent  white  settlement  in  Ohio  that  of  the  Moravian  missionaries 
on  the  Muskingum,  Gnadenhiitten,  Schonbruun,  etc.  —  David  Zeisberger 
—  The  massacre  of  the  Christian  Indians  at  Gnadenhiitten  —  Continuous 
Indian  wars  —  Settlements  on  the  Ohio  River,  at  Marietta,  Losantiville 
(Cincinnati),  etc.  —  St.  Clair's  defeat  —  General  David  Ziegler  —  The 
Indian  fighter  Lewis  Wetzel  —  Expedition  of  General  Wayne  against 
the  Indians  opens  the  country  for  settlement —  Ebenezer  Zane,  founder 
of  Zanesville  —  German  sectarians  in  Tuscarawas  County  —  The  "  Back- 
bone Region  "  of  Ohio  —  The  Scioto  Valley  —  Martin  Baum  of  Cincin- 
nati, pioneer  of  Western  commerce — Chr.  Waldschmidt  in  the  Little 
Miami  Valley  —  Dayton  and  Germantown  in  the  valley  of  the  Great 
Miami  —  Distribution  of  German  settlers  throughout  the  larger  towns 
of  Ohio  —  The  traveler  Sealsfield's  observations  —  Mission  tours  of  the 
German  Methodist  Heiurich  Bohm. 

Being  more  difficult  of  access,  the  territory  north  of  the 
Ohio  was  not  settled  as  early  as  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 
It  was  inhabited  by  warlike  Indian  tribes,  who  proved  to 
be  quite  as  capable  of  resistance  as  their  conquerors,  the 
Six  Nations,  had  been  in  the  East.  The  first  Germans  to 
penetrate  the  Ohio  country  were  the  two  men  prominent 
for  their  exceptional  services  in  Indian  affairs,  Conrad 
Weiser  and  Christian  Frederick  Post.  Weiser  several 
times  served  as  envoy  to  the  Indians  of  the  Ohio  Valley, 
in  1748  visiting  the  Indian  village  called  Logstown,  due 
west  of  Fort  Pitt,  near  the  Ohio  state-line.  The  import- 
ant mission,  during  the  French  and  Indian  War,  of  the 


392  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Morayian,  C.  F.  Post,  to  the  Indians  of  the  Ohio  Valley, 
in  which  he  succeeded  in  separating  them  from  their 
French  allies,  has  been  described  in  a  preceding  chap- 
ter/ 

Post  had  established  for  himself  the  reputation  of 
being  a  friend  of  the  red  man,  and  his  marriage  with  a 
Delaware  squaw  increased  the  Indians'  confidence  in  him. 
The  marriage,  however,  was  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the 
Bethlehem  church  fathers,  and  deprived  him  of  the  privi- 
lege of  laboring  in  the  mission  service  of  the  Moravians. 
This  circumstance  induced  him  to  work  independently 
among  the  Indians,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Moravians,  though 
no  longer  as  their  ordained  missionary.  In  1761  he  be- 
came the  first  white  settler  in  the  Ohio  district,  locating 
among  the  Tuscarora  Indians  in  the  upper  Muskingum 
Valley,  in  what  is  now  Stark  County,  Ohio.  His  was  the 
first  dwelling  erected  by  a  white  man  in  the  Ohio  region, 
exclusive  of  the  stations  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  and 
the  huts  of  traders.  Desiring  to  found  a  mission  for  the 
Indians,  he  applied  for  assistance  to  the  brothers  at  Beth- 
lehem. The  young  John  Heckewelder  thereupon  volun- 
teered to  go  to  Post's  settlement,  and  he  soon  became  a 
worthy  disciple,  learned  in  the  Indian  tongues.  At  first 
they  had  some  difficulty  in  obtaining  permission  from  the 
Indians  to  cultivate  the  land,  but  soon  after  they  laid  out 
a  garden  (in  1762),  gave  instruction  to  the  Indian 
children,  and  preached  the  Gospel  to  the  more  mature. 
But  their  presence  in  the  Indian  territory  seemed  to  be 
viewed  with  disfavor,  and  involved  danger  to  themselves. 
Judging  from  the  signs  all  about  them,  something  mys- 
terious was  brewing.  Post  had  gone  eastward,  when 
Heckewelder  found  that  he  was  in  danger  of  assassina- 

^  See  Chapter  x,  pp.  274-278. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY     393 

tion.  The  latter  immediately  fled  to  Fort  Pitt,  and  meet- 
ing Post  on  the  way,  notified  him  of  the  danger.  Post 
would  not  be  convinced  until  he  had  returned  to  the 
settlement,  when  he  also  concluded  that  his  only  chance 
for  safety  lay  in  flight. 

The  storm  that  was  gathering  resulted  in  what  is  known 
as  Pontiac's  War,  which  followed  immediately  after  the 
French  and  Indian  War.  The  Indians  had  found  that  they 
had  merely  changed  masters  when  the  French  had  given  up 
their  claims  to  the  territory  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  A  more 
formidable  adversary  was  facing  them,  and  it  was  now 
their  time  to  crush  him  before  he  had  grown  too  strong. 
The  Indians  were  fortunate  in  having  a  leader  of  great 
ability,  Chief  Pontiac,  of  the  Ottawa  tribe.  Imposing  in 
physique,  eloquent  and  magnetic,  he  was  endowed  with 
all  the  qualities  of  the  ideal  Indian  warrior.  Going  from 
tribe  to  tribe  along  the  frontiers  of  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Virginia,  he  convinced  his  hearers  that  the 
time  had  come  when  they  might,  by  a  bold  stroke,  crush 
the  advancing  white  settlers,  and  regain  all  the  hunting- 
grounds  which  the  red  men  had  lost.  They  were  told  that 
the  Great  Spirit  was  angry  with  them  because  they  were 
cowards,  and  they  were  shown  how  all  could  be  accom- 
plished in  a  short  time.  The  genius  of  Pontiac  conceived 
the  plan  to  attack  all  the  frontier  forts  at  the  same 
moment,  depriving  them  of  the  opportunity  of  assisting 
one  another.  Since  the  Indians  were  never  desirous  of 
storming  fortifications,  Pontiac  planned  to  take  the  forts 
by  stratagems.  For  each  outpost  a  different  scheme  of 
surprise  was  devised,  and  complete  secrecy  was  charged 
upon  all  the  Indian  allies.  At  one  place  the  Indians,  laden 
with  furs,  entered  a  fort,  apparently  to  engage  in  trading. 
At  a  given  signal  the  unsuspecting  whites  were  cut  down 


394  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

almost  to  the  last  man.'  At  another  the  king's  birthday- 
was  celebrated  with  an  Indian  game  of  ball.  The  Chippe- 
was  and  Sacs  were  engaged  on  opposite  sides,  and  when 
the  game  was  at  the  hottest  the  ball  was  thrown  over  the 
fortifications.  All  the  players,  numbering  several  hundred, 
instantly  leaped  over  the  walls  after  the  ball,  and  having 
thus  gained  entrance,  killed  the  defenders  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  fort.^  By  most  clever  tricks  and  surprises  all 
the  forts  of  the  entire  western  frontier  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Indians,  with  the  exception  of  Detroit  and  three 
forts  in  Pennsylvania  :  Bedford,  Ligonier,  and  Pitt.  Detroit 
was  saved  by  an  Indian  squaw,  who  revealed  the  plan  to 
Major  Gladwyn.  The  three  Pennsylvania  fortresses  owed 
their  safety  to  the  watchfulness  and  discijDline  enforced  by 
Colonel  Henry  Bouquet,  who  in  the  French  and  Indian 
War  had  served  as  colonel  of  the  German  regiment,  the 
Royal  Americans,  and  as  second  in  command  in  the  ex- 
pedition against  Fort  Duquesne.  The  Indians  laid  siege  to 
the  Pennsylvania  forts  until  Colonel  Bouquet  came  to  their 
relief,  who  gained  a  victory  in  the  battle  of  Bushy  Run. 
As  was  their  wont,  the  Indians  quickly  wearied  of  the 
struggle,  deserted  Pontiac,  and  lent  a  willing  ear  to  pro- 
posals of  peace.  Two  punitive  expeditions  were  imme- 
diately organized  to  invade  the  Indian  territory,  one  at  the 
north  under  General  Bradstreet,  in  the  direction  of  Lake 
Erie  and  Niagara,  the  other  farther  south  into  Ohio, 
under  Colonel  Bouquet.  Colonel  Bouquet  arrived  in  the 
upper  Muskingum  region  in  the  autumn  of  1764,  and 
established  a  camp.  Thither  he  summoned  the  chiefs  of 
the  Seneca,  Delaware,  and  Shawnee  tribes,  and  their  allies. 

1  The  stockade  at  St.  Joseph's  River,  in  the  northern  part  of  Indiana. 

2  Fort  MichlUimackinac.  Cf.  Francis  Parkman,  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac, 
and  the  Indian  War  after  the  Conquest  of  Canada,  vol.  i,  p.  338.  (Boston,  1880.) 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY     395 

Before  he  would  listen  to  any  suggestions  of  peace,  be 
demanded  that  within  twelve  days  from  the  seventeenth 
of  October,  the  Indians  should  deliver  into  his  camp  all 
white  prisoners  whatsoever  who  were  in  their  hands, 
whether  they  be  English  or  French,  women  or  children, 
whether  they  be  adopted  by  a  tribe,  united  by  marriage, 
or  held  on  any  other  pretense.  They  were  required  also 
to  furnish  the  prisoners  with  clothing,  food,  and  horses, 
as  far  as  Fort  Pitt.  After  that,  he  declared,  he  would  be 
ready  to  dictate  terms  of  peace. 

This  bold  manner  of  treating  the  Indians  had  the  de- 
sired effect.  They  brought  to  the  camp  at  Wakatamake 
two  hundred  and  six  persons  whom  they  had  taken  pris- 
oners,—  eighty-one  men,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
women  and  children.  The  prisoners  and  their  relatives  at 
home  were  duly  thankful  for  their  release.*  Those  prison- 
ers whose  relatives  or  friends  had  not  come  with  the  army 
were  taken  to  Carlisle,  Pennsylvania,  to  be  identified 
there.  It  is  recorded  that  a  German  woman,  Frau  Hart- 
mann,  from  eastern  Pennsylvania,  came  to  Carlisle,  eagerly 
searching  for  her  daughter.  When  found,  the  child  did 
not  recognize  the  mother.  Bouquet  asked  the  latter 
whether  she  could  not  recall  some  melody  that  she  had 
sung  to  the  girl  in  her  childhood.  Frau  Hartmann  sang 
the  old  church  hymn, — 

"  Allein  und  doch  nicht  ganz  alleine 
Bin  ich  in  meiner  Einsamkeit," 

« 

the  child  listening  intently,  and  when  the  words  were 
uttered,  — 

"G'nug,  dasz  bei  mir,  wann  ich  allein, 
Gott  und  viel  tausend  Engel  sein," 

*  A  few,  it  is  said,  had  become  so  thoroughly  accustomed  to  the  Indian 
manner  of  life  that  they  longed  to  get  back  to  it,  and  were  permitted  to  re- 
turn. 


396  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

the  girl  remembered  them,  and  fell  about  her  mother's 
neck. 

We  have  seen  that  the  attempt  of  Post  and  Heeke- 
welder,  in  1761,  to  found  a  mission  in  Stark  County,  Ohio, 
had  failed  on  account  of  Pontiac's  War.  In  the  autumn 
of  1767  Post  returned  to  his  Western  Indian  congrega- 
tion and  remained  there,  the  first  pioneer.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  David  Zeisberger  founded  an  Indian  congregation 
at  Goshocking,  on  the  Allegheny  River,  in  western  Penn- 
sylvania. The  Indian  braves  looked  with  suspicion  upon 
an  organization  which  converted  their  warriors  into 
peaceable  settlers,  and  several  unsuccessful  attempts  were 
made  to  assassinate  Zeisberger.  By  1770  the  congregation 
had  greatly  increased  in  numbers  and  they  decided  to 
move  farther  west,  selecting  a  site  on  the  Big  Beaver 
River,  about  twenty  miles  from  its  confluence  with  the 
Ohio,  and  founding  a  settlement  which  they  named  Frie- 
densdorf.  But  when  this  section  was  sold  to  the  whites, 
the  Christian  Indians  found  refuge  among  the  Delawares, 
Mingos,  and  Wyandots,  of  Ohio,  who  invited  them  to 
settle  on  the  Muskingum.  There  Zeisberger  settled  with 
twenty-seven  of  his  red-skinned  disciples  and  founded 
Schonbrunn.  The  greater  part  of  the  Indians  from  Frie- 
densdorf  arrived  in  several  groups  during  the  summer, 
and  a  municipal  code  for  the  government  of  the  Indians 
was  committed  to  writing.*  The  regulations  included  a 
discipline,  and  also  a  summary  of  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines concerning  non-resistance.^  The  settlements  were 
governed  by  the  elders,  Zeisberger,  Ettwein,  Heckewelder, 

1  Cf.  Heckewelder,  A  Narrative  of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren 
among  the  Delaware  and  Mohigan  Indians,  from  its  commencement  in  the  year 
1740  to  the  close  of  the  year  1809.  (Philadelphia,  1820.) 

^  Paragraph  19  :  "  He  who  goes  to  war,  i.  e.,  will  shed  human  blood,  he 
may  no  longer  live  among  us." 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY     397 

and  several  other  white  men,  together  with  the  Helpers 
(National  Heifer),  who  were  Indians.  In  the  following 
spring'  the  remaining  converted  Indians  on  the  Susque- 
hanna and  Big  Beaver  rivers  came  to  the  upper  Musk- 
ingum region  and  founded  Gnadenhiitten  and  Salem,  Bro- 
ther Johannes  Roth  being  the  spiritual  guardian  of  the 
former  and  Brother  Gottlieb  Sensemann  of  the  latter. 
These  three  Christian  Indian  villages  lay  at  that  time 
about  five  miles  distant  from  one  another,  grouped  about 
the  confluence  of  the  Tuscarawas  and  Muskingum  rivers. 
To  the  north  were  the  villages  of  the  Mingos  and  Dela- 
wares,  to  the  west  those  of  the  Mohawks,  and  to  the  south 
of  the  Shawnese.  Northwest,  on  the  Sandusky  River,  the 
Senecas  had  their  hunting-grounds,  while  the  Miamis  and 
Wyandots  were  located  still  farther  to  the  west.  In  the 
forks  of  the  Muskingum,  not  far  from  Gnadenhiitten,  lay 
the  Mohawk  village  Goshocking  (Coshocton),  in  which 
lived  the  chief.  White  Eye.  He  was  very  friendly  to  the 
missionaries,  and  begged  them  to  found  another  Christian 
village  in  the  neighborhood,  with  the  result  that,  in  1776, 
Lichtenau  was  built  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Muskingum, 
about  three  miles  below  Goshocking-.  Thither  Zeisberg'er 
and  Heckewelder  wandered,  leaving  Jacob  Schmick  at 
Gnadenhiitten.  This  period  was  perhaps  the  most  prosper- 
ous in  the  history  of  the  settlements.  A  book,^  printed  in 
the  Delaware  language,  was  used  by  the  converted  Indians,^ 
which  taught  them  to  read  and  write  their  own  language, 
and  gave  them  instruction  in  English  and  German.  The 

^  Buchstahir-und  Lesebuch,  of  Zeisberger,  printed  in  Philadelphia;  Grammar 
of  the  Language  of  the  Lenni  Lenape,  or  Delaivare  Indians  ;  translated  from  the 
German  manuscript  by  P.  S.  Du  Ponceau,  with  a  preface  and  notes  by  the 
translator.  (Philadelphia,  1827.)  Published  by  order  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  in  the  third  volume  of  the  new  series  of  their  Transactions. 

*  Within  the  present  Coshocton  County,  Ohio. 


398  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

congregations  numbered  four  hundred  and  fourteen  persons 
toward  the  close  of  1775.  The  Delawares  lived  in  Schon- 
brunn  and  Salem,  the  Mohawks  from  New  York  in 
Gnadenhiitten,  and  the  Mohawks  from  the  Muskingum 
region  at  Lichtenau.  The  journal  of  Zeisberger  ^  shows  that 
the  Indians  were  capable  of  being  trained  in  the  peaceable 
pursuits  of  civilization.  Had  the  Moravians  been  given  a 
chance  to  develop  the  experiment  more  fully,  it  is  probable 
that  permanent  results,  of  far-reaching  consequences,  might 
have  been  obtained.  But  the  warlike  spirit  of  the  time  and 
the  unalterable  prejudices  of  the  contending  races  were  in 
opposition  to  the  peaceful  methods  of  the  Moravians.  The 
converted  Indians  were  destined  to  become  the  victims  of 
a  brutal  massacre  that  will  forever  stain  the  annals  of  pio- 
neer history. 

When  the  Revolutionary  War  broke  out,  the  Indians 
were  invited  to  become  the  allies  of  the  British,  and  from 
their  point  of  view  they  decided  correctly  that  such  an 
alliance  was  their  only  hope  against  the  advancing  colon- 
ists. Soon  even  the  tribes  more  friendly  disposed  joined 
the  British  alliance,  while  every  neutral  tribe  was  looked 
upon  with  suspicion.  To  the  American  borderers  all 
Indians  seemed  equally  noxious;  to  them  the  only 
good  Indian  was  a  dead  Indian. 

The  Christian  Indians  were  wedged  in  between  two  great 
war-parties,  their  own  race  urging  them  to  join  them  and 
the  British,  and  their  few  friends  among  the  colonists  ad- 
vising them  to  go  to  the  American  forts  for  protection.  In 
spite  of  these  invitations  they  remained  in  their  settlements, 
trusting  in  the  protection  of  a  Higher  Power,  and  as  they 

1  Diary  of  David  Zeisberger,  A  Moravian  Missionary  among  the  Indians  of 
Ohio  (1781-98).  (2  vols.  Cincinnati,  1885.)  Translated  from  the  original 
German  manuscript  and  edited  by  E.  F.  Bliss. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY     399 

thought,  observing  a  strict  neutrality  between  the  two 
great  rival  parties.  Nevertheless,  on  account  of  their  loca- 
tion, being  on  the  road  to  Fort  Pitt  and  the  eastern  forts, 
they  were  forced  to  provide  food  and  shelter  to  traveling 
war-parties.  Thus  they  fell  under  suspicion,  on  the  one 
hand,  of  being  a  relay  station  of  the  Indian  warriors,^  while 
on  the  other,  the  British  and  the  renegade  Simon  Girty 
declared  that  Zeisberger  and  his  companions  were  spies  of 
the  Americans. 

The  Six  Nations,  urged  on  by  the  British  agents,  directed 
the  Chippewas  and  Ottawas  to  destroy  the  settlements  of 
the  peaceable  Indians,^  but  the  Western  Indians  felt  no  in- 
clination to  massacre  the  Moravian  Indians,  many  of  whom 
belonged  to  their  own  races.  Finally  the  Wyandots  were 
prevailed  upon  to  act.  Under  their  half -king,  Pomoacan, 
the  Wyandots,  accompanied  by  groups  of  Delawares  and 
other  Indians,  appeared  in  the  Muskingum  settlements  in 
September,  1781.  They  were  entertained  by  the  Christian 
Indians  for  some  time,  until  the  guests  began  to  act  wan- 
tonly, killing  pigs  and  cattle  to  no  purpose.  The  demand 
was  then  made  that  all  the  converted  Indians  go  with  them 
and  abandon  their  settlements.  On  their  refusal,  the  white 
missionaries,  who  had  great  influence  over  their  flock,  were 
seized,  and  the  entire  body  of  Indians  of  Schonbrunn, 
Salem,  and  Gnadenhiitten  were  forced  to  accompany  their 
oppressors  to  the  northward.  According  to  Zeisberger,^  the 

^  They  were  compelled  from  time  to  time  to  furnish  food  and  shelter  for 
both  parties.  On  several  occasions  the  shelter  given  the  Indians,  who  had  just 
surprised  and  attacked  American  frontier  settlements,  was  bitterly  remem- 
bered against  the  Christian  Indians. 

^  Zeisberger's  Diary  gives  the  message  of  the  Iroquois  as  follows  :  "  Wir 
schenken  euch  die  Christengemeinde,  macht  Suppe  daraus  I  "  i.  e. ,  "  We  will 
make  you  a  present  of  the  Christian  congregations.  Make  soup  of  them  !  " 

«  Diary  of  David  Zeisberger,  1781-98.  (2  vols.  Cincinnati,  1885.)  Ab- 
stracts from  the  journal  are  found  in  Der  deutxche  Pionier,  vol.  v,  pp.  284  ff. 


400  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

missionaries  were  stripped  of  their  clothing,  and  the  whole 
village  was  robbed  of  all  provisions  and  goods.  The  peace- 
ful Indians  were  not  even  allowed  to  gather  their  crops. 
They  saw  the  warriors  parading  about  in  clothing  stolen 
from  them,  yet  they  proceeded  cautiously  throughout, 
fearing  that  resistance  would  bring  death.  An  Indian  wo- 
man, who  had  come  with  the  warriors,  being  distressed  by 
the  evil  treatment  of  the  missionaries,  stole  the  Delaware 
chief  Pipe's  horse,  the  best  in  the  whole  company,  and  rode 
it  to  Pittsburg.  Her  flight  made  the  Indian  warriors  sus- 
picious of  the  missionaries.  Their  fear  of  armed  interfer- 
ence from  Fort  Pitt  was  not  without  foundation,  for  the 
American  commander  at  the  fort.  Colonel  Gibson,  had  en- 
deavored to  get  the  Christian  Indians  to  come  into  the 
American  lines,  where  he  might  protect  them.^ 

It  was  soon  apparent  that  the  Wyandots  were  under 
positive  orders  from  the  Six  Nations  to  bring  the  peaceful 
Indians  away,  dead  or  alive.  The  Wyandots  had  been  at- 
tracted by  the  opportunity  for  plunder,  and  the  hope  also 
of  increasing  their  fighting  strength  from  the  captured 
Indians.  They  had  suffered  severely  from  war  and  pest- 
ilence, and  the  half-king  was  troubled,  because  he  could 
hardly  get  one  hundred  braves  together.  For  greater 
safety  the  Wyandots  had  got  other  tribes  to  support  them 
in  this  expedition. 

Before  the  Moravian  Indians  left  the  settlements  where 
they  had  prospered  so  well,  they  listened  to  a  parting  ser- 
mon and  sang  their  German  hymns.  Then  they  journeyed 
for  many  days  to  the  Sandusky  region,  near  tlie  southern 
shore  of  Lake  Erie.  They  built  rude  huts,  so  that  they 
might  endure  the  winter's  cold,  but  they  were  almost  re- 
duced to  starvation.  After  earnest  entreaties,  some  were 
'  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  ii,  pp.  144-145. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    401 

finally  permitted  to  go  back  to  the  Muskingum  to  harvest 
their  corn  and  bring  it  to  their  new  abode.  About  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  men,  women,  and  children,  arrived  in 
the  abandoned  villages  at  the  beginning  of  February, 
1782.  In  the  mean  time  bauds  of  Wyandots,  under  the 
Scotch-Irish  renegade,  Simon  Girty,  had  ravaged  the 
American  settlements  on  the  upper  Ohio  and  Monon- 
gahela.  Evil  tongues  had  spread  the  report  that  the 
Christian  Indians  who  had  come  back  to  the  Muskingum 
had  taken  part  in  these  savage  raids.^  Some  of  the  border 
settlers  conspired  to  destroy  the  Moravian  villages,  and 
accordingly  a  company  of  volunteers  gathered  together 
early  in  March,  1782,  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
David  Williamson. 

The  Christian  Indians  had  just  completed  their  work 
of  gathering  up  the  harvest,  they  had  filled  their  sacks 
with  corn,  and  were  preparing  to  leave  for  the  Sandusky 
region  the  next  day.  But  the  conspirators  approached 
stealthily  and  rapidly.  Finding  a  few  peaceful  Indians  on 
the  outskirts  of  Gnadenhiitten,  they  slew  them,  so  that 
the  settlement  was  completely  taken  by  surprise.  The 
Indians  were  told  that  they  would  be  brought  to  Fort 
Pitt,  to  be  there  protected  against  Simon  Girty's  savage 
bands,  and  that  they  should  now  summon  the  settlers 
from  the  other  places,  Salem  and  Schdnbrunn.  The  Indians 
of  Schonbrunn  did  not  obey  the  summons  and  fled,  but 
those  of  Salem  came  to  Gnadenhiitten,  when  they  were 
seized  and  herded  like  sheep,  along  with  the  Indians  of 
Gnadenhiitten.  They  were  placed  in  two  large  barns,  the 

1  There  were  backsliders  among  the  Christian  Indians,  young  braves  who 
joined  the  Indian  war-parties  that  passed  through  their  villages.  These  run- 
aways were  as  cruel  and  savage  as  their  associates,  and,  when  they  were 
recognized,  the  whites  would  blame  the  whole  congregations  for  the  apo- 
stasy and  crimes  of  these  few  men.  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  pp.  151  £f. 


402  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

men  in  one  and  the  women  and  children  in  another.  A 
mock  trial  was  held  by  Williamson,  in  which  the  question 
was  23ut,  whether  the  captives  should  be  taken  to  Fort 
Pitt  or  murdered.  Williamson  asked  those  who  wished  to 
spare  the  Indians  to  step  out  of  the  ranks,  but  only  eight- 
een men  out  of  the  whole  number  showed  any  inclination 
toward  mercy  and  humanity.  The  majority  voted  for 
cold-blooded  butchery.  In  justice  to  American  frontier 
history,  it  should  be  said  that  not  one  of  the  more  note- 
worthy borderers  was  among  them  —  no  man  of  military 
distinction  or  reputation  as  an  Indian  fighter.*  The  cow- 
ards next  decided  upon  the  plan  of  massacre.  Some  were 
for  setting  flames  to  the  blockhouse  with  its  living  prison- 
ers ;  others,  greedy  for  scalps,  preferred  to  act  as  execu- 
tioners. The  latter  method  prevailed,  and  after  giving  the 
prisoners  a  brief  spell  to  prepare  themselves  for  death, 
the  assassins  entered  the  prison-houses  and  with  club  and 
knife  dispatched  every  man,  woman,  and  child.  The  only 
survivors  were  two  boys  ; "  one  had  concealed  himself  under 
the  floor,  and  the  other  revived  after  being  partially  scalped. 
A  detachment  which  was  sent  to  Schonbrunn  found  that 
the  Indians  there  had  received  warning  and  escaped. 

The  better  element  of  the  frontier  was  certainly  not 
concerned  in  the  expedition  :  the  lowest  and  most  blood- 
thirsty alone  took  part ;  nevertheless  it  is  impossible  to 
excuse  the  massacre  under  any  consideration.  It  gave 
evidence  of  the  savagery  of  the  frontier,  the  inhuman 
cruelty  resulting  from  the  frequency  of  bloody  scenes.^ 

*  Cf.  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  pp.  157,  etc. 

^  Klariprecht,  Deutsche  Chronik  in  der  Geschichte  des  Ohio-Thales  und 
seiner  Hauptstadt,  Cincinnati.  Zusammengestellt  nach  authentischen  Quellen, 
p.  92.  (Cincinnati,  Ohio.) 

3  Roosevelt's  Winni7ig  of  the  West,  which  speaks  with  indignation  of 
this   massacre,  contains  a  paragraph  and  footnote  (vol.  ii,  p.  157)  which 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY     403 

The  person  most  to  be  blamed  was  Williamson,  the  leader, 
who  drifted  along  in  obedience  to  the  popular  wishes, 
without  having  character  enough  to  lead  or  restrain.  He 
and  many  of  his  men  who  had  taken  part  in  the  massacre 
were  shortly  after  called  to  a  reckoning,  not  by  the  laws 
of  the  colonies,  but  by  the  fate  of  battle,  in  the  wilds  of 
Ohio.  Williamson,  to  be  sure,  escaped  with  his  life,  but 
many  others  of  the  butchers  met  their  death  in  the  woods 
or  were  even  tortured  to  death  in  Lidian  camps.  A  body 
of  four  hundred  and  eighty  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia 
militia  gathered  at  Mingo  Bottom  on  the  Ohio  (near 
Steubenville),  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  towns  of 
the  Wyandots  and  Delawares,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Sandusky  River.  The  object  was  to  punish  them  for  their 
repeated  raids  on  the  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  frontier 
settlements.  Their  having  taken  in  charge  so  large  a  part 
of   the  converted    Indians  had  nothingf-   to  do  with  the 

might  seem  to  imply  that  the  German  element  had  some  share  in  this  mas- 
sacre. The  name  of  but  one  German  is  recorded  as  having  taken  part  in  this 
expedition.  His  name  was  Karl  Bilderbach,  who  murdered  the  young  Sche- 
bosch,  the  half-breed  Moravian,  immediately  before  the  expedition  arrived 
at  Gnadenhiitten.  Bilderbach  seems  to  have  been  as  coarse  and  cold-blooded 
as  the  rest  of  the  company.  There  is  no  evidence  that  any  other  Germans 
were  in  the  expedition.  The  fact  that  the  expedition  was  formed  on  the 
headwaters  of  the  Ohio  does  not  prove  that  there  were  Germans  in  it.  If 
the  German  element  was  at  fault  at  all,  it  was  in  a  different  way.  Zeisberger 
and  his  Moravian  missionaries  had  converted  the  Indians  to  a  pacific  Christ- 
ian mode  of  life,  out  of  keeping  with  the  savagery  of  frontier  conditions,  to 
a  non-resisting  group  of  settlers  destined  to  be  ground  to  pieces  between 
two  millstones.  In  the  footnote  on  page  157  appear  the  lines:  "The  Ger- 
mans of  up-country  North  Carolina  were  guilty  of  as  brutal  massacres  as 
the  Scotch-Irish  backwoodsmen  of  Pennsylvania.  See  Adair,  245."  This 
statement  by  no  means  accords  with  the  reports  we  have  by  Lutheran 
ministers  in  the  Carolinas  on  the  general  character  of  the  German  settlers, 
e.  g.,  "  Never  has  a  German  stood  in  the  pillory  in  Salisbury ;  nor  has  ever 
a  German  been  hung  in  this  place."  From  a  report  by  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Roschen.  Cf.  Bernheim,  History  of  the  German  Settlements  and  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  North  and  South  Carolina,  p.  332. 


404  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

movemeut.  Colonel  William  Crawford,  a  just  and  upright 
man,  but  with  no  special  fitness  for  the  undertaking,  was 
elected  to  command  the  expedition.  He  was  successful, 
by  only  five  votes,  in  securing  the  leadership  over  William- 
son, who  had  been  in  command  of  the  forces  at  the 
Moravian  massacre.^  The  borderers  advanced  to  the  Indian 
towns  of  the  Wyandots  and  Delawares  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Sandusky  River.  The  battle  that  followed 
showed  that  the  murderers  of  the  peaceful  Indians  were 
no  match  for  the  Indian  warriors,  when  roused  in  defense 
of  their  homes.  The  Americans  were  defeated,  their  re- 
treat beino;  soon  chang-ed  to  a  rout.  Crawford  unfor- 
tunately  was  cut  off  from  his  men,  taken  captive  and 
tortured  to  death  by  the  Indians,  a  fate  that  Williamson 
should  have  met,  who  on  the  retreat  took  command  when 
Crawford  could  not  be  found.  An  officer,  John  Rose,  is 
mentioned  as  having  been  a  tower  of  strength  on  this  ex- 
pedition. He  was  the  soul  of  the  fight  in  the  battle  with 
the  Indians,  and  on  the  retreat  was  opposed  to  the  separa- 
tion of  the  army  into  small  parties,  which  the  commander 
Williamson  advocated  with  such  disastrous  results.  Even 
Williamson  in  a  letter  to  General  Irvine  was  unreserved 
in  his  praise  of  Rose.^  The  latter,  whose  real  name  was 
Rosenthal,  was  of  German  blood,  born  in  the  Baltic  pro- 
vince of  Livland.  A  duel  had  led  to  his  exile.  He  served 
in  the  Revolutionary  War  in  General  Irvine's  Pennsyl- 
vania regiment,  and  with  greater  distinction  in  the 
succeeding;  Indian  wars.  He  went  back  to  his  native  land 
upon  hearing  from  his  friends  that  he  might  safely  return. 

'  Cf.  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  p,  159.  The  author  notes  that  Williamson's  com- 
mand of  votes  indicated  that  public  opinion  on  the  border  was  not,  as  it 
should  have  been,  outraged  by  the  massacre. 

2  C.  W.  Butterfield,  The  Historical  Account  of  the  Expedition  against  San- 
dusky under  Colonel  William  Cratoford,  1782,  pp.  206-207.  (Cincinnati,  1873.) 


JOHANNA   MARIA   HECKEWELDER 


OF  THE 
UNlVERSnY  Ol*  IVilNOIS 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    405 

In  spite  of  their  misfortunes,  the  honor  of  having 
made  the  first  settlements  in  the  state  of  Ohio  belongs  to 
the  Moravians  in  Tuscarawas  County.  In  the  village  of 
Gnadenhiitten  the  first  white  child  ^  of  Ohio  was  born  July 
4,  1773.  Its  name  was  Johann  Ludwig  Roth,  son  of  the 
Moravian  missionary  of  that  name.  The  first  white  girl 
born  in  Ohio  was  in  all  probability  Johanna  Maria  Hecke- 
welder,  daughter  of  the  missionary  John  Heckewelder, 
born  April  16,  1781,  in  Schonbrunn.  The  settlement  in 
Tuscarawas  County  struck  new  roots  after  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  as  will  be  seen  below. 

The  frequent  disasters  attending  expeditions  against 
the  Indians  retarded  the  settlements  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
Generals  Harmar  and  St.  Clair  lost  their  reputation  in 
successive  Indian  campaigns,  and  not  until  General  An- 
thony Wayne,  in  1794,  made  his  thorough-going  cam- 
paigns in  Ohio,  was  the  backbone  of  Indian  resistance 
broken.  Disasters,  however,  did  not  check  completely 
the  daring  and  enterprise  of  colonists  moving  toward  the 
Ohio.  The  river  itself  gradually  became  the  avenue  of  ap- 
proach, in  spite  of  the  dangers  of  its  wooded  shores,  where 
savages  lay  in  wait  for  an  opportunity  to  shoot  down  all 
whom  the  current  brought  within  range,  or,  for  the  sake 
of  plunder,  to  lure  the  boatmen  into  ambush  by  imitating 
the  sounds  of  game. 

^  This  statement  is  based  upon  the  official  journal  of  Gnadenhiitten  found 
in  the  Moravian  archives  of  Bethlehem.  The  father  was  born  in  Branden- 
burg, Prussia,  1726,  arrived  at  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  1756,  and  three 
years  after  entered  the  service  of  the  Indian  mission.  Cf.  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vol.  vii,  pp.  66-70.  The  honor  of  being  the  first  white  child  born  in 
Ohio  had  been  claimed  by  Millehomme,  the  child  of  French  traders,  born  in 
1774.  There  is  a  tradition  that  among  the  captives  surrendered  in  1764  to 
Colonel  Bouquet,  there  was  a  white  woman  from  Virginia  with  a  baby  that 
had  presumably  been  born  in  Ohio.  That  is  a  mere  supposition,  however, 
since  the  child  could  have  been  born  elsewhere  before  captivity.  The  nation- 
ality of  the  Virginia  woman  is  not  known. 


406  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Settlements  began  to  be  made  along  the  Ohio  at  the 
mouths  of  the  rivers,  and  they  soon  proceeded  upward 
along  the  courses  of  the  larger  tributaries.  Marietta  was 
the  first  settlement,  in  1788,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Musk- 
ingum River.  It  was  built  for  the  protection  of  the  border 
settlers,  and  a  company  of  regulars  under  General  Harmar 
was  stationed  there.  The  settlers  were  almost  exclusively 
from  New  England.  About  the  same  time  a  few  settlements 
were  made  farther  below  on  the  Ohio  River,  in  the  Miami 
region.  Columbia,  now  within  the  precincts  of  the  city  of 
Cincinnati,  was  founded  by  Major  Benjamin  Steitz,  an 
officer  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  It  was  not  known  that 
he  was  of  German  blood  (his  name  being  spelled  Stites) 
until  Hecke welder's  journal  appeared.  The  Moravian  mis- 
sionary was  a  guest  of  Major  Steitz  in  the  year  1792,  and 
says  among  other  things  that  his  host  had  bought  twenty 
thousand  acres  from  Judge  Symmes  and  founded  the 
town  of  Columbia,  in  October,  1788.  At  the  time  at  which 
the  note  is  made  in  the  journal  (June,  1792),  Heckewelder 
states  that  Columbia  had  1100  inhabitants.^  The  year 
after,  in  1789,  Losantiville  was  founded  close  by  on  the 
Ohio,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Licking  River.  John 
Filson"  gave  the  name  to  the  settlement:  "L"  being  for 
Licking,  "  os "  the  mouth  of  the  river,  "  anti "  opposite 

^  Columbia  and  the  larger  part  of  Steitz's  land  are  at  present  within  the 
first  ward  of  Cincinnati.  Heckewelder's  journal  was  first  published  in  1797 
at  Halle,  with  the  title  Sammlung  von  ausldndischen,  geoyraphischen  und 
statistischen  Nachrichten.  Herausgegeben  von  Sprengel.  It  was  published 
separately  as  already  mentioned:  A  Narrative  of  the  Mission  of  the  United 
Brethren,  etc.  (Philadelphia,  1820.) 

^  He  taught  school  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  in  1782,  and  was  the  first  his- 
torian of  Kentucky.  His  history  appeared  also  in  a  German  edition  at  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main,  1789.  The  Filson  Club,  which  has  published  a  valuable 
series  of  historical  monographs,  mainly  on  Kentucky  history,  honored  him  in 
the  adoption  of  his  name- 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    407 

and  "  ville "  the  city ;  therefore  "  the  city  opposite  the 
mouth  of  the  Licking."  The  author  of  this  queer  conceit 
left  his  partners,  among  them  Denmann/  a  German- Ameri- 
can from  Strasburg  (in  Pennsylvania),  to  carry  forward 
the  project.  Denmann  was  a  land  speculator  and  had 
bought  from  Judge  Symmes  eight  hundred  acres  at  five 
shillings  an  acre,  now  the  very  centre  of  the  city.  In  1790 
the  name  Losantiville  was  changed  to  Cincinnati,  in 
honor  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.^  About  fourteen 
miles  below  Cincinnati,  Judge  Symmes  had  projected  the 
city  of  Cleves.  The  three  localities,  Columbia,  Losantiville, 
and  Cleves,  were  for  a  time  rivals  in  the  ambition  to  be- 
come the  emporium  of  the  Miami  Valley.  At  first  Colum- 
bia seemed  to  be  a  little  in  the  lead,  although  Cleves 
undoubtedly  had  "  the  pull,"  Symmes  being  the  influen- 
tial man.  But  the  third  rival,  Losantiville,  or,  as  it  was 
re-named,  Cincinnati,  ran  off  with  the  bone.  Much  de- 
pended on  the  location  of  the  defensive  fort  of  this  region. 
Symmes  wanted  to  have  it  at  Cleves,  but  contrary  to  his 
wishes  Fort  Washington  was  built  at  Cincinnati,  on  the 
choice  of  Ensig-n  Lutz.  Tradition  has  it  that  his  choice 
turned  upon  his  desire  to  be  near  his  mistress,  who  had 
removed  from  Cleves  to  Losantiville.^ 

^  Another  of  the  partners  had  been  Colonel  Robert  Patterson  ;  Colonel 
Ludlow  took  the  place  of  Filson.  Judge  John  Cleves  Symmes  and  his 
associates  in  1787  bought  from  Congress  a  tract  of  land  along  the  Ohio  and 
Miami  rivers.  It  originally  contained  one  million  acres,  which  was  reduced 
later  to  248,540  acres,  because  of  the  partial  failure  of  the  colonization 
plans.  Its  location  was  approximately  between  the  Little  and  Great  Miami 
rivers  from  the  Ohio  River  on  the  south  to  the  city  of  Dayton  and  beyond  on 
the  north.  Cf.  Jameson,  Encyclopcedic  Dictionary  of  American  Reference, 
vol.  ii,  p.  276. 

^  As  described  in  a  previous  chapter  (xi),  a  society  consisting  of  officers 
who  had  fought  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

'  See  Eickhoff,  In  der  neuen  Heimat,  p.  272.  The  chapter  in  which  the 
story  is  told  :  "  Die  Deutschen  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,"  pp.  272  £f.,  was  writ- 


408  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

The  Scioto  River  was  ascended  early  for  the  establish- 
ment of  land  claims, but  no  settlements  could  prosper  dur- 
ing the  period  of  Indian  wars,  while  the  American  armies 
were  meeting  galling  defeats,  and  the  Indians,  confident 
and  arrogant  in  victory,  even  threatened  the  settlements 
on  the  Ohio  River.  The  Miamis,  Wyandots,  Ottawas,  and 
others  were  by  no  means  willing  to  give  up  their  lands, 
merely  because  the  Six  Nations  had  by  treaty  resigned 
their  claims  to  the  Northwestern  Territory.  The  Indians 
had  inflicted  irreparable  losses  upon  the  untrained  armies 
of  Harmar  and  St.  Clair.  General  Harmar  had  in  1790 
conducted  an  expedition  to  the  Indian  towns,  destroying 
the  dwellings  and  provisions  of  the  Miami  tribes,  but  on 
the  retreat  he  was  made  to  pay  the  penalty.  His  blow 
was  only  severe  enough  to  anger  and  unite  the  Indians, 
not  to  cripple  and  crush  them.  Banding  together,  their 
vengeful  forays  on  the  frontier  gained  in  frequency  and 
ferocity.  Attacks  followed  on  all  the  Ohio  settlements 
from  Marietta  to  Louisville.*  When,  a  year  after.  General 
St.  Clair  made  his  ambitious  campaign  against  them,  the 
Ohio  Indians  were  ready  to  meet  a  more  formidable  foe 
than  the  raw  militia  and  untrained  regulars  whom  the 
brave  but  imprudent  general  gathered  about  him.  Not 
taking  the  requisite  precautions  against  his  hidden  and 
skillful  foe,  St.  Clair's  camp  on  the  eastern  fork  of  the 
Wabash  was  surprised  by  a  force  consisting  of  the  "  picked 
warriors  of  the  Delawares,  Shawnees,  Wyandots,  and 
Miamis,  and  all  the  most  reckless  and  adventurous  young 
braves  from  among  the  Iroquois  and  the  Indians  of  the 

ten  by  H.  A.  Rattermann,  the  editor  of  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  whose  im- 
portant researches  in  German-American  history  have  repeatedly  been  cited 
in  other  places. 

*  Roosevelt,  vol.  iii,  p.  310. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO   VALLEY     409 

upper  lakes,  and  many  of  the  ferocious  whites  and  half- 
breeds  who  dwelt  in  the  Indian  villages."  ^ 

Their  manner  of  attack  was  that  which  was  generally 
employed  with  such  terrible  effect.  They  would  shoot 
from  under  cover,  from  which  they  would  appear  only 
to  tomahawk  a  victim  or  to  escape  when  a  bayonet  at- 
tack was  made.  In  this  battle  the  Indians  were  numerous 
enough  to  surround  a  company  which  would  charge  with 
the  bayonet,  if  lured  on  by  fleeing  savages.  To  escape 
annihilation  St.  Clair  gathered  about  him  what  remained 
of  the  fourteen  hundred  men  who  had  begun  the  fight, 
and  charged  desperately  toward  the  road  by  which  they 
had  come.  The  Indians  gave  no  quarter  to  the  wounded 
that  fell  into  their  hands,  and  had  they  been  less  intent 
on  plunder,  they  might  have  inflicted  even  greater 
losses  on  the  retreating  army."  From  the  rich  spoils  each 
tribe  received  everything  they  could  desire  in  the  way  of 
horses,  tents,  guns,  axes,  powder,  clothing,  and  blankets. 
Their  insolence  and  savageness  were  increased  tenfold  and 
the  conditions  on  the  frontier  became  worse  than  ever  be- 
fore. St.  Clair  hastened  to  Philadelphia  to  defend  his  mili- 
tary reputation.  His  courage  in  battle  and  his  honorable 
career  in  the  Revolutionary  War  gained  him  a  merciful 
judgment  on  the  part  of  Congress  and  of  President  Wash- 
ington, who  had,  however,  earnestly  warned  him  against 
being  taken  by  surprise. 

During  St.  Clair's  absence  his  place  on  the  frontier  was 
taken  by  David  Ziegler.  General  Ziegler  took  command  at 
Fort  Washington  and  reestablished  a  sense  of  security 

'  Roosevelt,  vol.  iv,  p.  37. 

'  A  mere  handful  of  the  army  reached  Cincinnati.  "  Six  hundred  and 
thirty  men  had  been  killed  and  over  two  hundred  and  eighty  wounded. 
Less  than  five  hundred,  only  about  a  third  of  the  whole  number  engaged 
in  the  battle,  remained  unhurt."   Roosevelt,  vol.  iv,  p.  47. 


410  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

among  the  settlers.  Every  inch  a  soldier,  and  the  ablest  of 
the  officers  under  St.  Clair,  he  was  the  latter's  choice  for  the 
position  of  defending  the  frontier  at  this  trying  period.  In 
the  Revolutionary  War  he  '  had  been  among  the  very  first 
to  enlist,  serving  in  the  first  regiment  of  Pennsylvania  in 
the  Continental  line,  which  became  the  second^  regiment 
to  be  enrolled  under  Washington's  banner.  In  the  Revo- 
lutionary service  he  had  the  reputation  of  being  second 
to  none  as  a  disciplinarian.^  His  subsequent  career  as  an 
Indian  fighter  was  noteworthy.  He  took  part  in  the  de- 
fense of  Fort  Harmar  (Marietta)  at  various  times ;  of  Fort 
Finney  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Miami ;  he  was  in  the 
expedition  of  General  George  Rogers  Clark  against  the 
Kickapoos  on  the  Wabash ;  and,  in  1790,  in  Harmar's  ex- 
pedition on  the  upper  Miami.  He  was  not  present  in  the 
fatal  encounter  on  the  Wabash  ;  having  been  detached  for 
special  service.  After  the  battle,  through  watchfulness  and 
enforcement  of  discipline,  Ziegler  succeeded  in  getting 
the  remnants  of  the  retreating  army  back  into  Fort  Wash- 
ington. The  woods  being  full  of  Indians,  he  began  at 
once  the  task  of  clearing  them,  at  the  same  time  adopting 
energetic  measures  for  the  protection  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Ohio  Valley.  He  thereby  became  the  hero  of  the 
day  and  the  favorite  officer  of  the  army  in  the  Ohio  dis- 
trict. 

St.  Clair  had,  by  his  assignment  of  Ziegler  to  this  office, 
placed  the  latter  over  the  heads  of  the  ranking  officers, 
Wilkinson,  Butler,  and  Armstrong.  This  created  bad  feel- 
ing against  Ziegler,  particularly  on  the  part  of  Wilkinson, 

^  A  native  of  Heidelberg,  Germany  (born,  1748),  he  had  served  in  the 
Russo-Turkish  wars,  and  then  immigrated  to  America,  settling  at  Lancas- 
ter, Pennsylvania,  in  1775. 

^  The  first  was  a  Massachusetts  regiment. 

3  Major  Denny's  Diary.  Cf.  Eickhoff,  p.  266. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    411 

whose  resourcefulness  at  intriguing  became  notorious  sub- 
sequently in  the  affair  of  Aaron  Burr.  Ziegler  was  made 
the  victim  of  false  charges,  accused  of  drunkenness,  and 
insubordination  to  the  Secretary  of  War  (General  Knox). 
Ziegler  thereupon  resigned  from  the  army,  but  retained 
his  enviable  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  settlers  of  the  Ohio 
Valley.  When  Cincinnati  was  incorporated,  he  was  elected 
the  first  mayor,  or  president,  in  1802.  In  the  following 
year  he  was  reelected  unanimously,  in  recognition  of  his 
able  defense  of  the  settlement  in  1791  and  1792,  and 
as  a  recompense  for  unjust  treatment  on  the  part  of  the 
government.* 

During  the  Indian  wars  a  number  of  Germans  gained 
renown  as  scouts  and  Indian  fighters,  either  on  their  own 
account,  or  as  members  of  the  expeditions  of  Harmar,  St. 
Clair,  and  Wayne.  On  the  Scioto  were  the  Indian  hunters, 
George  Ruffner,"  David  Bolaus,  and  Frederick  Belirle. 
Without  any  special  location  lived  as  scouts  and  hunters, 
Peter  Nieswanger,  Jacob  Miller,  Johann  Warth,  and  the 

*  Cf.  Judge  Burnett,  Notes  on  the  Settlement  of  the  Northwestern  Territory. 
Quoted  by  Eickhoff,  p.  268. 

^  Ruffner  was  a  German  Virginian.  Ruffner's  Cave  was  named  after  the 
original  settler  in  the  Valley.  Members  of  the  family  also  settled  in  the 
Kanawha  district  in  present  West  Virginia.  In  J.  P.  Hale's  Trans- Allegheny 
Pioneers  appear  the  notes  (pp.  279,  280)  :  "1797.  —  The  late  General  Lewis 
Ruffner  was  born  October  1,  in  the  Clendenin  blockhouse,  probably  the  first 
white  child  born  within  the  present  limits  of  Charleston  "  [West  Virginia]. 
Also:  "1817 — David  and  Tobias  Ruffner  first  discovered  and  used  coal 
here."  Numerous  other  items  occur  concerning  the  Ruffners.  They  were 
one  of  the  most  prominent  families  in  the  district,  as  men  of  affairs,  poli- 
ticians, and  preachers.  Another  important  family  were  the  Bowyers.  In  1798 
Peter  Bowyer,  father  of  the  late  Colonel  John  Bowyer,  of  Putnam  County, 
made  the  first  settlement  in  the  New  River  Gorge,  and  established  a  ferry 
at  Sewell.  These  items  show  that  in  the  Kanawha  district  German  pioneers 
came  as  early  and  were  as  active  and  prominent  as  those  of  any  other 
nationality.  Compare  the  numerous  German  names  in  Hale's  Trans-Alle- 
gheny Pioneers. 


412  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

brothers,  Christopher  and  Joseph  Miller.  The  most  fa- 
mous of  the  Indian  fighters  on  the  Ohio  was  Ludwig 
(Lewis)  Wetzel.  "  As  a  hunter  and  fighter  there  was  not 
in  all  the  land  his  superior." '  Lewis's  father,  Johann 
Wetzel,^  was  born  in  the  Palatinate,  emigrated  to  Penn- 
sylvania, and  became  one  of  the  first  pioneers  of  the  West, 
settling  probably  near  Wheeling,  in  the  county  of  West 
Virginia  which  bears  the  family  name.  The  Wetzel  fam- 
ily consisted  of  four  sons  and  four  younger  daughters. 
The  latter,  together  with  one  boy  and  the  mother,  had 
one  day  gone  to  Wheeling  to  visit  friends.  Martin  was 
out  hunting,  Lewis  and  Jacob  with  the  father,  when  they 
were  attacked  in  their  blockhouse  by  a  band  of  Indians. 
They  slew  the  father  and  made  the  two  boys  captives, 
Lewis  being  wounded  in  the  breast.  He  was  then  thirteen 
years  of  age.  The  Indians  encamped  on  the  Blue  Lick, 
about  twenty  miles  up  the  Muskingum.  They  neglected 
to  bind  the  captives,  and  when  the  Indians  were  sleeping, 
Lewis  whispered  to  his  brother,  "  Jacob,  let  us  escape  and 
go  home."  After  they  had  gone  a  few  hundred  steps  they 
sat  down  upon  a  tree  stump.  Lewis  again  whispered  to 
his  brother,  "  We  cannot  go  barefooted.  I  shall  go  back 
and  get  two  pairs  of  Indian  moccasins."  After  he  had  come 
back  with  them,  they  thought  it  might  be  better  to  be 
armed.  Lewis  went  back  to  the  Indian  camp  a  second 
time,  taking  two  guns  and  a  hunting-knife.  Thus  armed 
the  two  boys  fled  homeward,  taking  the  moon  as  a  guide. 
The  Indians  in  their  search  passed  the  boys,  and  the  lat- 
ter then  followed  their  pursuers'  trail,  which  showed  them 
the  path  homeward  for  a  distance.  They  again  skillfully 

*  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  p.  138. 

^  The  name  Wetzel  in  the  original  German  records  of  the  family  appears 
as  Watzel  or  Watzel.  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  p.  138. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    413 

eluded  the  Indians  on  their  return  from  their  vain  hunt, 
and  got  back  safely  to  the  blockhouse,  in  the  charred  ruins 
of  which  they  found  the  lifeless  body  of  their  father, 
mutilated  and  scalped.  Then  and  there  they  swore  to  kill 
every  Indian  they  should  lay  eyes  on,  and  the  vow  was  as 
faithfully  kept  as  Hannibal's  against  the  Romans. 

Lewis  became  wonderfully  skilled  in  the  handling  of 
his  rifle.  He  could  load  and  fire  while  running  at  full 
speed.  In  the  use  of  a  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife  no  In- 
dian was  his  better.  Of  medium  height,  broad-shouldered, 
thick-set,  his  frame  like  his  heart  was  of  steel.  His  eyes 
were  black  and  shot  fire,  his  face  was  covered  with  the 
scars  of  smallpox,  his  complexion  was  dark  from  exposure, 
almost  like  that  of  an  Indian.  He  was  a  true  friend  and 
a  dangerous  enemy,  taciturn  in  mixed  company,  but  com- 
municative, even  eloquent,  in  a  small  circle  of  friends. 
Numerous  are  the  adventures  told  of  him.  In  1782,  shortly 
after  Crawford's  death  at  the  stake,  Wetzel  happened  to 
go  in  search  of  a  horse  with  his  friend  Thomas  Mills  in 
the  neig-hborhood  of  St.  Clairsville.  Near  the  so-called 
Indian  Spring  they  met  a  company  of  forty  Indians,  who 
were  watching  for  the  stragglers  of  Crawford's  expedition. 
The  Indians  and  the  whites  caught  sight  of  one  another 
at  the  same  moment.  Lewis  fired  first  and  killed  his  In- 
dian, while  Mills  had  the  misfortune  to  be  wounded,  over- 
taken, and  scalped.  Four  Indians  threw  away  their  guns 
and  pursued  Wetzel  at  full  speed.  After  running  half  a 
mile  one  of  his  pursuers  was  only  ten  steps  away  from 
Wetzel.  The  young  man  turned,  shot  his  pursuer,  and 
bounding  away  again,  reloaded  his  rifle  as  before.  Very 
soon  the  second  Indian  had  come  so  near  that  when 
Wetzel  turned  to  shoot  him,  the  Indian  took  the  muzzle  of 
the  gun  in  his  hand,  and  forced  a  desperate  struggle  for 


414  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

possession  of  the  rifle.  Wetzel  succeeded  in  bringing  the 
mouth  of  the  gun  against  the  breast  of  the  Indian,  fired, 
and  the  Indian  fell.  In  the  mean  time  Wetzel,  as  well  as 
his  two  remaining  pursuers,  was  nearly  exhausted.  The 
fugitive  succeeded,  however,  in  reloading  his  gun,  and 
now  remained  standing  to  await  the  two  Indians.  One  of 
them  stepped  behind  a  young  tree,  which  gave  his  body 
only  poor  protection,  for  he  fell  a  victim  to  Wetzel's  sure 
aim.  Thereupon  the  last  Indian,  believing  that  his  adver- 
sary had  diabolical  resources  at  his  command,  gave  up  the 
chase,  shouting  :  "  Can't  catch  that  man ;  rifle  always 
loaded."  The  Indians  on  one  or  more  occasions  got  close 
enouo-h  to  Wetzel  to  strike  him  with  their  tomahawks, 
but  desiring  to  capture  him  alive,  so  that  he  might  be  put 
through  a  series  of  tortures  befitting  his  great  record, 
they  always  missed  their  opportunity  to  rid  themselves  of 
him.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Wheeling  alone,  Wetzel  is 
said  to  have  killed  twenty-seven  Indians.  Another  ac- 
count credits  him  with  no  less  than  fifty  Indians  slain  by 
his  own  hand.^  He  slew  more  Indians  than  were  killed 
by  either  one  of  the  two  large  armies  of  Braddock  and  St. 
Clair  during  their  disastrous  campaigns.^ 

To  punish  the  Indians  for  an  attack  below  Steubenville, 
the  white  inhabitants  offered  a  reward  of  one  hundred 
dollars  for  the  first  Indian  scalp  secured.  Major  McMahon, 
who  had  frequently  led  the  whites  in  bloody  encounters, 
took  twenty  men  from  the  Ohio  and  pressed  on  to  the  Mus- 
kingum. They  there  encountered  a  much  larger  body  of 
Indians  and  decided  to  retreat.  Wetzel,  however,  would  not 
hear  of  retreating  without  having  taken  a  single  scalp, 
and,  concealing  himself  on  the  edge  of  the  Indian  camp, 

1  Encyclopcedic  Dictionary  of  American  Reference,  vol.  ii,  p.  364. 
'  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  p.  140. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    415 

lay  in  wait  for  stragglers.  He  was  successful  in  surprising 
two  Indians  in  their  sleep,  killed  one,  and  was  much  cha- 
grined that  the  other  succeeded  in  escaping.  He  arrived 
at  home  only  a  day  later  than  the  rest  of  the  party  and 
claimed  the  reward.  He  would  frequently  go  off  alone  on 
an  Indian  hunt.  On  one  occasion  he  was  bold  enougfh  to 
attack  four  Indians  who  were  asleep.  He  leaned  his  rifle 
against  a  tree,  his  plan  being  to  kill  one  Indian  after  an- 
other with  his  tomahawk.  He  killed  three  in  the  moment 
of  their  awaking,  and  the  fourth  only  saved  his  life  by 
flight. 

Wetzel  was  utterly  without  fear,  and  a  good  friend  of 
the  white  settler,  but  his  ferocity  toward  the  Indians  at 
times  endangered  the  sacredness  of  treaty  obligations. 
When  peace  had  been  made  with  the  Indians  in  1789, 
Wetzel  would  not  recognize  any  restraint,  and  killed  an 
Indian  who  had  a  safe-conduct  from  General  Harmar. 
The  latter  succeeded  in  capturing  Wetzel  for  this  crime, 
but  the  law-breaker  planned  an  escape.  He  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  walk  about  freely,  by  the  river  (the  Muskin- 
gum). The  privilege  was  granted  and  Wetzel  frisked 
about  like  a  colt,  then  returned  to  his  guard.  After  repeat- 
ing the  trick  several  times,  ever  increasing  the  distance, 
he  suddenly,  by  a  tremendous  effort,  effected  his  escape 
into  the  woods,  although  his  hands  were  tied.  He  was  re- 
captured in  Maysville  and  brought  back  to  General  Har- 
mar at  Cincinnati.  When  the  prayers  for  his  release  were 
of  no  avail,  the  pioneers  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio  River 
determined  to  set  him  free  by  force,  for  Wetzel  was  as 
much  an  idol  of  the  American  frontiersmen  as  an  object 
of  superstitious  dread  on  the  part  of  the  Indians.  The 
news  of  the  storming  of  the  Bastille  by  the  people  of 
Paris  had  just  reached  Cincinnati.  Incited  by  the  reports, 


416  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

the  pioneers  plauned  to  storm  Fort  Washington,  where 
Wetzel  was  imprisoned.  In  order  to  prevent  bloodshed, 
Judo-e  Symmes  issued  a  writ  of  habeas  corjncs,  whereupon 
Wetzel,  giving  bond,  was  set  free. 

Enraged  at  his  treatment  by  Harmar,  Wetzel  soon  mi- 
grated to  Spanish  territory.  In  Natchez  he  was  again  the 
popular  hero  of  the  settlers,  but  became  the  victim  of  a 
treacherous  plot.  Though  he  could  neither  read  nor  write, 
and  attached  little  value  to  money,  he  was  arrested  as  a 
counterfeiter  and  sentenced  to  lifelong  imprisonment  in 
the  calaboose  at  New  Orleans.  After  being  imprisoned  four 
and  a  half  years  in  a  dark,  damp  cell,  Wetzel  was  set  free 
through  the  aid  of  influential  friends,  including  the  gov- 
ernor. In  order  that  Wetzel's  liberation  might  not  come 
into  conflict  with  royal  instructions,  a  stratagem  was  re- 
sorted to.  The  prisoner  pretended  sudden  illness  and 
death ;  his  body  was  placed  in  a  cof&n  and  was  given  over 
to  his  friends  for  burial.  In  the  evening  Wetzel  arose 
from  his  tomb  and  the  empty  cof&n  was  buried  in  the  river. 
Under  an  assumed  name  he  then  went  to  Natchez,  where 
he  lived  a  few  years  in  the  family  of  his  cousin,  Siks. 
After  the  Louisiana  Purchase  he  migrated  to  Texas,  but 
his  long  imprisonment  had  undermined  his  constitution, 
and  he  soon  died  on  the  banks  of  the  Brazos,  in  Texas,  in 
the  primeval  forests  that  he  loved. 

The  brothers  of  Lewis,  Martin  and  Jacob  Wetzel,  were 
likewise  good  Indian  fighters.  An  interesting  encounter  of 
Jacob  with  an  Indian  chief  is  told,  in  which  the  combat 
culminated  in  a  wrestling-match.  There  was  an  accidental 
fall,  whereby  the  Indian  landed  on  top,  and  Jacob  was  saved 
only  by  his  faithful  dog,  that  sprang  at  the  throat  of  the 
Indian,  whom  Wetzel  was  then  able  to  dispatch.  By  a 
timely  bit  of  good  luck,  he  found  a  canoe,  in  which  he 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO   VALLEY    417 

crossed  the  river,  and  made  good  his  escape,  while  he  could 
distinctly  hear  the  savage  cries  of  his  pursuers,  who  could 
not  cross  the  river  and  who  were  bewailing  the  loss  of 
their  chief/ 

Every  type  of  backwoodsman  was  fashioned  out  of  the 
German  clay  by  the  prevailing  conditions  of  the  frontier, 
and  it  is  not  strange  therefore  that  we  also  meet  the  de- 
sperado. Mike  Fink  was  a  frontiersman  of  the  half-horse, 
half-alligator  type,  a  boxer,  a  gouger,  a  drunkard,  and 
gross  wit.  His  nickname  was  "  Bang-all."  He  was  a  boats- 
man,  having  a  keel-boat  on  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi. 
One  of  his  favorite  pastimes  was  to  practice  shooting  with 
his  bosom  friend  Carpenter.  A  glass  of  whiskey  was  put 
on  the  head  of  either  and  the  other  would  shoot  it  off." 

After  the  defeats  of  Harmar  and  St.  Clair,  the  constant 
Indian  attacks  threatened  the  very  existence  of  every 
settlement  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  The  United  States  govern- 
ment was  finally  roused  from  its  indifferentism.  Men  and 
resources  were  placed  at  the  command  of  General  Anthony 
Wayne,  who  had  received  the  name  "  Mad  Anthony  "  for 
his  dash  and  fearlessness,  but  who  in  the  Revolutionary 
War  had  also  learned  the  value  of  caution.  Contrary  to 
the  example  of  his  predecessors,  he  would  not  enter  upon 
his  campaign  until  his  army  was  well  drilled  in  the  prac- 
tices of  Indian  warfare.  Nor  did  he  ever  on  the  advance 
neglect  to  send  out  scouts  and  sentries  in  all  directions. 
The  result  was  an  overwhelming  defeat  of  the  Indians,^  in 

»  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vi,  pp.  173-174,  "Bilder  aus  dem  Hinterwald." 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vi,  pp.  129,  135. 

'  The  Indians  numbered  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand,  Shawnees, 
Delawares,  Wyaudots,  Miamis,  Ottawas,  Pottawatamies,  Chippewas,  and 
Iroquois,  besides  Detroit  rangers  and  refugees.  Wayne's  forces  were  more 
numerous,  two  thousand  regulars  and  one  thousand  mounted  volunteers 
from  Kentucky.  Roosevelt,  vol.  iv,  pp.  85-86. 


418  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  battle  of  Fallen  Timbers,  in  the  Maumee  River  district. 
This  led  to  an  Indian  treaty  the  following  year,  and  an 
era  of  new  settlements  on  the  Ohio  and  its  tributaries  on 
the  north,  the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  the  Little  and  Great 
Miami. 

On  the  upper  Muskingum  the  Pennsylvania  German, 
Ebenezer  Zane  (Zahn),  founded  Zanesville.  In  lieu  of 
payment  for  his  lands,  he  contracted  to  cut  a  pack-horse 
trail  from  the  Ohio  River  at  Wheeling  by  way  of  Chil- 
licothe  to  Limestone  Point,  i.  e.,  Maysville,  Kentucky. 
The  United  States  mail  was  carried  over  this  path  for 
the  first  time  in  1797.  In  the  latter  year  Zane  ^  laid 
out  New  Lancaster  (now  Lancaster),  through  which  town 
the  road  also  passed.  The  road  and  the  towns  upon  it  grew 
in  importance  and  were  for  a  long  time  the  connecting 
link  between  the  East  and  Kentucky.  In  New  Lancaster 
appeared  the  first  German  newspaper  west  of  the  Allegha- 
nies,  "Der  Lancaster  Adler"  (1807),  printed  in  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch. 

Jefferson  County,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Ohio  River, 
just  beyond  its  sharp  turn  southward,  and  opposite  the 
"  panhandle "  of  present  West  Virginia,  was  organized 
in  1797  by  a  proclamation  of  Governor  St.  Clair.  Many 
Germans  settled  there  and  founded  the  city  of  Steuben- 
ville  in  honor  of  General  Steuben.  On  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river,  the  area  of  western  Pennsylvania  around 
Pittsburg  and  south  and  west  of  it,  including  the  district 
around  Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  there  settled  numerous 
Germans  in  a  mixed  population.   In  the  Wheeling   dis- 

*  Zane  came  from  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  and  named  the  new  town  in 
Ohio  New  Lancaster,  in  honor  of  the  old.  He  first  located  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Wheeling,  West  Virginia.  See  the  account  in  the  succeeding 
paragraph. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    419 

trict  were  located  the  famous  Wetzels,  the  father,  John 
"Wetzel,  being  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  settlers  in  this  re- 
gion. A  county  near  by,  in  West  Virginia,  commemorates 
the  name  of  Wetzel.  The  settlements  were  exposed  to  In- 
dian attacks,  and  many  instances  of  heroic  defense  might 
be  cited.  The  most  noted  case  was  that  of  the  German 
family  Zane  (Zahn).  Ebenezer  Zane  had  established  the 
first  permanent  foothold  on  the  Ohio  River,  in  1769,  build- 
ing a  blockhouse  ^  on  the  present  site  of  Wheeling.  The 
fort  was  attacked  in  1782  by  a  band  of  forty  British  soldiers 
and  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  Indians.  The  particular 
hero  of  the  siege  was  Elizabeth  Zane,  sister  of  Ebenezer 
Zane.  The  latter  at  the  time  lived  about  forty  yards  dis- 
tant, in  a  house  which  was  used  as  a  magazine  for  the  fort, 
which  was  left  in  command  of  Silas  Zane.  The  ammuni- 
tion of  the  fort  being  exhausted,  it  was  proposed  that  one 
of  the  swiftest  runners  get  a  new  supply  from  the  magazine. 
Elizabeth  Zane  insisted  on  being  allowed  to  go  instead. 
"  You  have  not  one  man  to  spare,"  she  said ;  "  a  woman 
will  not  be  missed  in  the  defense  of  the  fort."  She 
rushed  out  when  an  opportunity  presented  itself,  and 
reached  the  house.  There  Colonel  Ebenezer  Zane  fastened 
a  tablecloth  about  her  waist,  into  which  he  emptied  a 
keg  of  powder ;  then,  with  her  precious  burden,  she  suc- 
ceeded in  safely  returning  to  the  fort  amid  a  shower  of 
bullets,  several  of  which  passed  through  her  clothes.^ 

^  Its  original  name,  Fort  Fincastle,  was  afterwards  changed  to  Fort  Henry. 
During  the  Revolutionary  War  it  was  the  object  of  frequent  attacks  by  the 
British  and  Indians. 

^  This  is  the  account  given  in  the  National  Cyclopcedia  of  American  Bio- 
graphy, vol.  xi,  p.  90.  Elizabeth  Zane  lived  for  many  years  near  Martinsville, 
on  the  Ohio  River.  She  was  twice  married.  Her  first  husband  was  named 
McLaughlin;  her  second,  Clark.  A  poem  was  written  by  Kara  Giorg,  com- 
memorating her  heroism.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  pp.  33-35.  A  monu- 
ment has  been  erected  in  honor  of  Elizabeth  Zane  in  the  city  of  Wheeling. 


420  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

"Within  the  precincts  of  Pittsburg  the  Germans  built 
the  first  Christian  church  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  Named 
"  Die  Smithfieldische  deutsche  evangelische  protestant- 
ische  Gemeinde,"  it  celebrated  the  hundredth  anniversary 
of  its  foundation  July  9,  1882.  Perhaps  a  Catholic  church, 
founded  by  Father  Weber,  antedated  this,  but  otherwise 
the  Enoflish  and  Irish  had  no  churches  that  were  earlier/ 

The  first  settlement  in  Ohio,  that  of  the  Moravians  in 
Tuscarawas  County,  destroyed  by  the  massacre  of  Gnaden- 
hiltten,  was  revived  when  in  1797  Congress  granted  the 
Indian  Moravian  congregation  three  tracts  of  land,  of 
four  thousand  acres  each,  in  the  same  location  as  the  de- 
stroyed settlements  of  Gnadenhlitten,  Salem,  and  Schon- 
brunn.  It  was  an  attempt  at  reimbursement  for  the  losses 
inflicted  by  the  brutal  mob  under  Williamson,  over  which 
the  government  had  had  no  control.  Zeisberger  had  in 
the  mean  time  wandered  about  for  fifteen  years  in  Ohio 
and  Michigan.  He  had  founded  new  villages  (e.  g..  New 
Gnadenhlitten,  Pilgerruh,  etc.),  but  the  old  distrust  and 
hatred  of  the  Indian  race  prevailed  everywhere.  In  1798 
Heckewelder  and  another  missionary  were  officially  sent 
to  the  Moravian  cong'resfations  abidinof  at  Fairfield  on  the 
Thames  River  in  Canada,  to  bring  them  back  to  their  old 
homes  on  the  Muskingum.  They  came  and  settled  about 
three  miles  distant  from  New  Philadelphia,  and  founded 
the  village  of  Goshen.  Zeisberger,  the  first  town-builder 
in  the  Ohio  Valley,  died  at  Goshen  in  1808.  His  tomb- 
stone records  his  age  (eighty-seven  years),  and  the  glory 
of  his  life,  his  service  as  a  missionary  among  the  Indians 
during  the  last  sixty  years  of  his  life. 

^  GeschicJite  der  ersten  deutscTien  vereinigten  evangelischen  protestantischen 
Gemeinde  zu  Pittsburg,  Pa.  Anldsslich  ihres  hundertjdhrigen  Jubildums,  nach 
Quellen  bearbeitet.  (Pittsburg.  Verlag  von  Louis  Holz.) 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    421 

The  Moravian  congregatious  in  Tuscarawas  County 
prospered,  though  the  Indian  element  declined.  Numer- 
ous settlers  arrived,  beginning  with  Jacob  Busch  in  1799/ 
An  enterprising  German,  whose  name  was  Knifely  (spelled 
also  Knisely),  laid  out  New  Philadelphia,  since  then  the 
county-seat.  Tuscarawas  County  attracted  other  sectarians. 
Mennonites  came,  and  Zoarites  settled  in  Lawrence  Town- 
ship. The  latter  were  from  Swabia,  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  landing  at  Philadelphia  in  1817,  with  Joseph 
Baumler  as  their  leader.  He  was  a  weaver  by  trade,  be- 
came their  schoolmaster,  and  showed  considerable  talent 
for  organization.  The  whole  county  received  a  definite 
stamp  from  its  sectarian  settlers.  Its  population  was  in- 
dustrious, developed  good  farms  and  prosperous  industries, 
but  took  little  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  world  about  them. 
More  than  half  of  the  present  inhabitants  are  estimated 
to  be  of  German  descent.^ 

North  of  the  forty-first  parallel,  and  extending  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  westward  from  Pennsylvania, 
tliere  lay  the  territory  called  the  Western  Reserve,  be- 
cause it  had  been  reserved  by  Connecticut  when  she  ceded 
her  other  Western  land  claims.  Its  settlers  were  almost 
exclusively  from  New  England,  and  they  came  by  way  of 
central  New  York  and  Lake  Erie.  There  were  some  Ger- 
man islands,  e.  g.,  in  Cuyahoga  County,  principally  in  the 
city  of  Cleveland,  where  many  Germans  and  Bohemians 
settled  when  the  Ohio  Canal  was  opened ;  some  Alsatians 

'  In  the  same  year  Peter  Greer,  Edmonds,  Ezra  and  Peter  Warner,  from 
Gnadenhutten,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  several  others  arrived.  Some  of  the 
names  among  them  were  :  Uhlrich,  Blickersdorfer,  Peter,  Rehmel,  Romig, 
Stoker,  Demuth,  Lehn,  Walton,  Keller,  etc.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ii, 
p.  310. 

2  This  estimate  was  made  abont  1870,  but  will  undoubtedly  hold  for  the 
present  day.  Cf.  Deutsch-Amerikanisches  Conversations-Lexikon  (Schem), 
vol.  xi,  p.  51.  (1874.) 


422  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

and  Lotharingians  in  Lorain  County ;  and  some  in  the 
northwestern  corner  of  Erie  County,  in  the  neighborhood 
o£  Sandusky.  These  islands  did  not  exist  before  1826/ 
Immediately  south  of  the  Western  Reserve,  with  its  New 
England  population,  there  was  a  broad  belt  of  German 
farmers.  The  territory  was  called  the  "  Backbone  Region  " 
of  Ohio,  because  it  formed  the  watershed  of  the  state  and 
lay  somewhat  elevated.  The  district  is  about  fifty  miles 
broad  and  extends  westward  across  the  state.  It  is  dis- 
tinctly the  Pennsylvania-German  part  of  Ohio,  and  its 
principal  business  was  farming,  mainly  the  growing  of 
grain,  while  the  Western  Reserve  raised  more  cattle ; 
wherefore  the  Germans  called  it  the  cheese  district.  Even 
to  this  day  Stark  and  Wayne  counties  are  said  to  be  the 
best  wheat  districts  in  Ohio.  Stark,  Tuscarawas,  Wayne, 
and  Holmes  form  the  centre  of  the  German  agricultural 
area.^  The  settlement  by  the  Germans  began  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  While  most  of  the 
names  of  the  towns  and  townships  were  assigned  without 
discrimination  or  special  significance,  still  it  is  noticeable 
that  a  large  number  of  the  place-names  are  German, 
indicating  thereby  a  German  population,  as,  for  instance : 
Berlin,  Winesburg,  Saxon,  Hanover,  Strasburg,  Dresden, 
Osnaburg,  Frankfort,  Spires,  Potsdam,  Freeburg,  etc.  A 

^  There  was  one  exception,  namely,  William  Hollenbeck,  the  first  German 
who  settled  in  the  Western  Reserve  of  Ohio.  He  tramped  from  Pennsylvania 
to  Wayne  County,  where  he  arrived  in  1800.  He  then  settled  at  Akron, 
Summit  County.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vi,  pp.  200,  224 £f.  There 
were  also  isolated  cases  of  Germaxi  settlers  in  1801  and  1806. 

^  Richland  County  was  a  part  of  the  German  district.  In  Mansfield  there 
settled,  in  1818,  the  Swiss,  John  Jacob  Weiler,  who  died  in  1881,  over  one 
hundred  years  old.  He  was  the  richest  man  in  central  Ohio,  not  without 
culture,  and  had  done  much  for  the  development  of  the  whole  region,  espe- 
cially by  the  building  of  railroads.  He  was  the  Martin  Baum  of  the  inland 
country. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    423 

German  township  occurs  in  almost  every  county,  and  tlie 
towns  with  scriptural  names,  such  as  Bethlehem,  Salem, 
Nazareth,  Goshen,  Canaan,  were  for  the  most  part  settled 
by  German  Moravians,  Dunkers,  Amish,  or  other  German 
sectarians.  The  towns  of  Canton,  Massillon,  Alliance,  and 
Minerva  were  to  a  great  extent  founded  and  developed  by 
Germans.  Their  industrious  hands  transformed  the  country 
from  prairie  and  forest  to  rich  farm-lands ;  their  skill 
and  enterprise  quickened  the  development  of  industries, 
as  the  agricultural  implement  factories  of  Canton  bear 
witness/ 

In  the  Scioto  Valley,  in  the  present  Ross  County,  were 
made  some  of  the  earliest  settlements  in  Ohio.  The  Ger- 
man hunters,  Ruffner,  Balaus,  and  Behrle,  had  already 
for  a  time  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chillicothe.  When 
in  1802  this  town  was  incorporated,  two  Germans  were 
elected -to  civic  offices,  Eberhard  Herr  and  J.  Brink. 
Chillicothe  was  for  a  time  the  capital  of  the  state,  and  a 
convention  for  drafting  the  state  constitution  was  held 
there.  In  this  convention  sat  two  Germans,  Grubb  and 
Op  den  Graff.  Dr.  Tiffin,  an  influential  settler  of  the 
Scioto  Valley,  who  was  elected  the  first  governor  of  Ohio 
(1802),  turned  to  the  Philadelphia  immigration  agent  for 
colonists.  A  large  number  of  German  redemptioners,  con- 
tracting for  three  years'  service,  were  sent  to  Ohio.  After 
securing  their  freedom  they  made  good  settlers.  About 
seventy  heads  of  German  families,  mostly  tradesmen  and 
mechanics,  arrived  between  1798  and  1818,  settling  for 

1  Ephraim  Ball  and  Cornelius  Aultman  (Altman)  laid  the  foundation  for 
the  prosperity  of  Canton  with  their  two  great  factories  devoted  to  the  manu- 
facture of  threshing  and  harvesting  machines,  plows  and  bridge-building 
materials.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  iii,  p.  218,  etc.  See  also,  The  German 
Element  in  the  United  States,  Volume  ii,  Chapter  lu. 


424  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  most  part  at  Chillicothe.  One  of  them  established  the 
first  iron-works  at  the  falls  of  Paint  Creek/ 

The  earliest  history  of  Cincinnati  has  already  been 
sketched.  In  the  early  settlement  Germans  were  not  nu- 
merous, but  the  few  who  were  there  were  very  influential. 
David  Ziegler's  defense  of  the  settlement  has  already  been 
noted,  and  his  being  elected  the  first  mayor  of  the  town. 
He  at  one  time  established  a  grocery  store  in  Cincin- 
nati, but  not  possessing  mercantile  ability,  he  was  glad  to 
sell  out.  A  merchant  of  the  highest  type,  however,  was 
Martin  Baum,  for  a  long  time  one  of  the  richest  men, 
and  the  most  daring  and  successful  promoter  of  the  West. 
He  was  born  at  Hagenau,  in  Alsace,  migrated  to  America 
before  the  Revolutionary  War,  studied  medicine  in  Balti- 
more in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  his  father,  and 
came  to  the  West  with  General  Wayne.  After  the  war  he 
settled  down  in  Cincinnati  as  a  merchant.  He  kept  a  gen- 
eral store  and  rapidly  grew  rich.  He  used  his  means  for 
the  promotion  of  great  enterprises.  In  1810  he  built  the 
first  iron  foundry  in  the  West,  and  about  the  same  time 
imported  the  German  expert,  Gillich,  from  Baltimore,  to 
build  the  first  sugar  refinery.  Textile  factories  and  steam 
mills  were  also  set  up  by  him.  He  founded  the  first  bank, 
and  was  for  many  years  the  agent  of  the  United  States 
Bank  in  Cincinnati.  With  another  German,  Captain 
Bechtle,  he  introduced  sail-boats  on  the  Ohio  and  Missis- 

^  Quite  a  number  of  these  Germans  took  part  in  the  War  of  1812-14.  Col- 
onel A.  Hagler,  Captain  Joachim,  and  the  names  Funk,  Keil,  Kramer,  Miiller, 
Hester,  J.  and  V.  Schob,  Henness,  Schumacher,  and  many  others  are  on  the 
records.  They  were  all  of  the  Northwest  army  assembled  at  Chillicothe, 
and  had  greater  hardships  to  endure  than  the  Eastern  army.  After  the  sur- 
render of  General  Hull,  some  were  transported  to  Canada,  those  escaping 
running  the  gauntlet  of  Indian  tomahawks  through  the  Ohio  woods.  All  the 
interior  settlements  of  Ohio  were  in  danger  of  Indian  ravages  after  Hull's 
defeat.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vii,  pp.  144,  455,  etc. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    425 

sippi,  supplanting  tlie  flat-  and  keel-boats  used  up  to  that 
time.  His  vessels  made  regular  trips  between  Cincinnati 
and  New  Orleans.  He  was  a  public-spirited  man,  interested 
in  every  important  undertaking.  He  was  mayor  of  Cin- 
cinnati in  1807,  was  reelected  in  1812,  and  served  as  re- 
corder from  1816  to  1819.  With  his  brother-in-law, 
Judge  Burnet,  and  the  physicians,  Drake,  Sellmanu,  and 
Busch,  Baum  labored  to  give  Cincinnati  a  start  also  in 
matters  of  art  and  literature.^  He  was  interested  in  schools 
and  museums,  helped  to  found  the  Cincinnati  College  in 
1818,  and  the  Western  Museum  in  the  year  before.  In 
his  numerous  undertakings  he  needed  reliable  laborers, 
and  brought  many  German  redemptioners  to  Cincinnati, 
whom  he  treated  well.  In  his  beautiful  home,  which  was 
famous  for  its  gardens  and  vineyards,  he  was  the  host  of 
many  German  scholars  and  cultivated  travelers.^  In  con- 
junction with  some  of  the  wealthiest  men  of  Cincinnati, 
he  met  reverses  in  1821-22,  arising  from  the  failure  of 
the  Cincinnati  Exporting  Company,  which  they  had 
founded.  Baum  sold  a  great  part  of  his  property  to  Nich- 
olas Longworth,  like  Drake  and  Burnet  giving  up  his 
house  in  payment  of  bank  debts.  He  recovered  from  his 
reverses  and  lived  nine  years  longer  to  foster  the  com- 
merce of  the  West,  though  he  was  not  able  to  support 
great  and  daring  enterprises  with  as  large  capital  as  be- 
fore. One  of  his  last  undertakings  on  a  large  scale  was 
the  establishment  in  1829  of  a  cotton  trade  with  Liver- 
pool. He  was  also  the  first  land-owner  and  projector  of 
the  present  city  of  Toledo,  near  Lake  Erie  (it  was  in 
1817  called  Port  Lawrence),  which  he  regarded  as  the 

'  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Cincinnati  Literary  Society,  1818  ; 
the  Apollo  Society,  1824  ;  and  the  Society  for  Vocal  and  Instrumental  Music. 
^  Cf.  Eickhoff,  pp.  278-279,  where  their  names  are  given. 


426  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

terminus  of  a  line  of  communication  from  Cincinnati, 
through  the  Miami  district,  to  the  Lakes.  His  financial 
reverses,  however,  compelled  him  to  sell  his  interests.  He 
died  in  1831,  with  the  distinction  of  having  been,  in  his 
generation,  the  greatest  pioneer  of  Western  commerce.^ 

Though  Cincinnati  did  not  contain  a  large  number  of 
Germans  during  her  beginnings,  it  is  very  different  at  the 
present  day.  The  great  increase  of  the  German  popula- 
tion began  about  1830.  In  that  year  only  five  per  cent 
of  the  population  was  German ;  in  1840,  twenty-three  per 
cent ;  in  1850,  twenty-seven  per  cent ;  in  1860,  thirty  per 
cent ;  in  1869,  thirty-four  per  cent ;  in  1900,  over  forty- 
one  per  cent.^  The  Germans  always  remained  influential. 
The  manufacturers.  Gross  and  Dietrich,  who  had  come  to 
America  in  1828,  built  on  their  own  resources  the  Dayton 
and  Michigan  Railroad  from  Dayton  to  Toledo,  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  and  forty-three  miles,  at  a  cost  of  nearly 
three  million  dollars.  They  thus  executed  the  plan  which 
Baum  had  dreamed  of,  and  which  he  started  to  realize  by 
his  purchase  at  Port  Lawrence. 

An  interesting  German  settlement  was  the  first  colony 
in  the  Miami  Valley,  on  the  banks  of  the  Little  Miami 
(1795).^  The  founder  was  Christian  Waldschmidt,  who  in 
1785  had  lived  at  Gengenbach  in  Baden.  He  was  a  Sep- 
aratist, and  though  well-to-do,  refused  to  pay  church  taxes. 
He  finally  sold  all  his  property,  including  a  paper-mill, 
and  in  1786,  with  about  twenty  families,  sailed  for  the 
United  States.  He  first  settled  in  Montgomery  County, 
Pennsylvania,  then  sent  a  party  to  examine  the  Miami 

1  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x,  pp.  42  3.  Cf.  also  EickhofE,  pp.  277-279. 

^  The  total  population  in  1900  was  325,902  ;  the  total  of  persons  of  Ger- 
man parentage  (including  those  with  one  parent  German,  the  other  native 
or  foreign)  was  136,093. 

*  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x,  pp.  346  £E. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    427 

country,  and  getting  a  favorable  report,  the  whole  com- 
pany went  westward.  The  site  chosen  was  near  the  pre- 
sent postal  station  of  Milford.  It  extended  three  miles 
north  and  south,  was  about  two  miles  broad,  and  lay  in 
a  fruitful  valley.  Barns,  mills,  forges,  and  comfortable 
homes  were  soon  built.  There  an  industry,  then  rare  in 
the  West,  the  manufacture  of  paper,  was  established  by 
Waldschmidt,  who  had  already  been  familiar  with  this 
art  in  his  native  land.  His  was  the  first  paper-mill  in 
Ohio.  The  "  Western  Spy,"  which  in  April,  1800,  had 
had  to  shut  down  because  no  paper  could  be  obtained, 
even  from  the  East,  encouraged  Waldschmidt  to  build 
the  mill.  On  May  27,  1800,  the  "Western  Spy"  was  en- 
abled to  reappear,  printed  on  paper  made  in  the  mill  of 
the  Miami  settler.  Advertisements  like  the  following  ap- 
peared in  the  "Western  Spy"  :  "Storekeepers  and  print- 
ers may  be  supplied  with  all  kinds  of  paper  at  the  store 
of  Baum  &  Perry,  Cincinnati,  or  at  the  mill."^  (1811.) 

Numerous  groups  of  German  settlers  followed  the  first , 
of  1795,  coming  in  1796-97  and  1798.  A  number  of  the 
later  settlers  came  from  Pennsylvania ;  the  earliest  were 
from  Baden.^  Christian  Waldschmidt  (Wallsmith)  died 
in  1814:  a  rich  man,  leaving  a  property  valued  at  $48,914, 
in  those  days  considered  a  great  fortune.  The  settlement 
called  "  Germany  "  was  prosperous  until  1861,  when  the 
United  States  military  camp,  called  Camp  Dennison,  was 

1  The  oldest  mill  in  the  West  was  in  Virginia,  at  Brownsville,  called  the 
Red  Stone  Paper  Mill  (of  Jonathan  Sharplus).  This  mill,  however,  could 
not  supply  the  large  demand. 

2  The  various  groups  are  named  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x,  pp.  346-351. 
The  changes  of  name  are  interesting.  Waldschmidt  becomes  Wallsmith  ; 
Freiberger,  Frybarger  ;  Harmar,  Home  ;  Freis,  Ferris  ;  Laudon,  Langdon  ; 
Bohne,  Boone  ;  Bechenbach,  Peckinpaugh  ;  Spath,  Spade  ;  Riithi,  Reedy  ; 
Orth,  Orr  ;  Bockenheim,  Buckingham  ;  Prisch,  Parrish  or  Price  ;  Moutag, 
Montauk. 


428  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

established  there  by  General  Rosecrans.  The  camp  ruined 
the  town,  and  the  old  settlers  migrated  to  neighboring 
counties  or  larger  cities. 

On  the  Great  Miami,  the  German  settlements  -were 
thickest  in  the  present  county  of  Montgomery,  centring 
in  two  places,  Dayton  and  Germantown,  which  as  late  as 
1825  were  rival  cities,  each  hoping  to  surpass  the  other. 
Immediately  after  the  treaty  of  General  Wayne,  in  1795, 
German  settlers  came  to  Dayton,  among  them  Georg 
Neukomm.^  Germantown  was  laid  out  in  1814,  by  Phil- 
ipp  Gunkel.  In  1845  all  of  its  five  churches  used  the 
German  language  in  divine  service.  In  1820  the  town 
promised  to  outstrip  Dayton.  In  1825  it  still  maintained 
the  same  rank,  but  three  years  later  the  building  of  a 
canal  from  Dayton  to  Cincinnati  gave  Dayton  a  decisive 
advantage.  Miamisburg,  Pyrmont,  and  numerous  other 
towns  were  founded  by  Germans.  On  the  whole  the  Ger- 
man element  preponderated  throughout  the  county.  Ger- 
man names  are  seen  in  all  the  public  books  and  documents 
of  the  county,  and  in  the  maps  of  the  villages.^  Much  of 
the  German  character  is  noticeable  in  the  rural  population 
of  the  district :  industry,  domesticity,  frankness  and  mer- 
riness,  along  with  the  petty  jealousies  and  quarrels,  per- 
haps incident  to  village  life  more  than  to  nationality. 

All  of  the  counties  on  the  line  between  Cincinnati  and 
Toledo  received  German  pioneers  between  1820  and  1835. 

^  He  was  the  son  of  Christian  Neukomm  of  Zweibriicken,  who  came  to 
America  in  1754-55,  adopting  the  name  Newcomer,  and  later  Newcom.  The 
Newcoms  were  not  Irish,  the  mistake  probably  arising  from  the  marriage 
of  one  of  the  boys  with  Margaret  McCarthy.  Other  names  among  the  earli- 
est settlers  were  Gosz,  Hammer,  Glaszmeier.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi, 
pp.  170-180,  etc.  Other  lists  of  names  are  found  in  the  same  volume,  pp. 
219,  254,  etc. 

^  Names  not  previously  mentioned  are  Gottesburg,  Snydersburg,  Philipps- 
burg,  Bachmann,  Harschmannville,  etc. 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    429 

In  Miami  County/  Piqua  has  a  large  German  population. 
Auglaize  County  had  numerous  German  settlers  at  Wapa- 
koneta,  Minster,  and  New  Bremen.^  A  little  later,  Ger- 
mans settled  Glandorf  in  Putnam  County,  and  Delphos  on 
the  border  between  Allen  and  Vanwert  counties.  Germans 
from  Frederick,  Maryland,  settled  in  the  twenties  at  Tiffin, 
on  the  Sandusky  River,  in  Seneca  County.  The  city  of 
Toledo,  as  all  the  large  cities  of  Ohio,  including  the  capi- 
tal, Columbus,  received  an  ever-increasing  German  popula- 
tion. In  the  south.  Highland,  Brown,  and  Hamilton 
counties  had  early  German  settlers. 

An  interesting  record  of  the  distribution  and  numerical 
strength  of  the  German  settlers  throughout  Ohio  is  found 
in  the  works  of  German  travelers.  Charles  Sealsfield,  in 
1825,  journeyed  from  Kittanning,  Pennsylvania,  about 
thirty-five  miles  north  of  Pittsburg,  to  New  Orleans.  He 
described  the  Moravian  colony  in  Tuscarawas  County,  and 
was  impressed  by  the  number  of  Germans  in  Zanesville, 
Lancaster,  Canton,  and  Dayton.^  The  early  pioneers  of 
Ohio  did  not  have  opportunities  for  regular  church  serv- 
ice, but  were  visited  by  traveling  preachers  with  greater 
or  less  frequency.  The  Moravian  missionary,  Ziislein,  was 
eagerly  listened  to,  just  as  subsequently  the  Methodist, 
Heiurich  Bohm.*  The  Pennsylvania  German  pioneers,  and 

1  The  earliest  settler  of  Miami  County  was  the  German  named  Knoop. 
Eickhoff,  p.  274. 

2  This  settlement  was  made  from  Cincinnati.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier, 
vol.  i,  pp.  84  ff. 

3  Die  vereinigten  Staaten  von  Nordamerika  nach  ihrem  politischen,  religiosen, 
und  gesellschaftlichen  Verhdltnisse  betrachtet,  von  C.  Sidons  (Charles  Seals- 
field).  Cotta:  1827.  Zweiter  Band,  zweites  und  drittes  Kapitel,  pp.  20-54. 

*  Heinrich  Bohm  was  the  real  apostle  of  German  Methodism  in  the  United 
States.  He  was  born  in  Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania,  in  1775.  His  great- 
grandfather was  a  Swiss  by  birth,  a  Pietist  who  settled  in  the  Palatinate 
and  became  a  Mennonite.  Jacob  Bohm  immigrated  to  America  in  1715  and 
settled  in  Lancaster  County,  where  Martin  Bohm  and  also  his  son  Heinrich 


430  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

the  Germans  who  came  directly  from  abroad,  preferred  to 
hear  preaching  in  German.  In  Ohio,  so  Bishop  Asbury 
writes  in  his  journal,  "Brother  Bohm  has  the  largest  body 
of  hearers,  because  he  preaches  in  German."  An  1808 
began  the  missionary  travels  of  Bohm,  in  company  with 
Bishop  Asbury.  They  visited  the  states  of  Ohio,  then 
only  just  beginning  to  be  settled,  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
the  two  CaroHnas,  Virginia,  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  New  England,  and  Canada.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  wherever  they  went  they  met  Germans, 
and  Brother  Bohm  had  to  preach  in  all  places  in  the  Ger- 
man language.  It  seems  that  he  was  selected  to  accom- 
pany Bishop  Asbury  for  that  very  reason.  Whenever 
their  journey  took  them  to  pioneer  settlements,  they  found 
Germans.  Bohm  preached  in  the  German  language  at 
Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania ;  at  Wheeling,  West  Virginia ;  in 
the  state  of  Ohio  at  Zanesville,  Lancaster,  Chillicothe, 
Circleville;  in  Kentucky  at  Louisville,  Lexington,  and 
Frankfort;  in  several  places  in  Tennessee*  and  North 
Carolina,  and  at  Charleston,  South  Carohna.  This  will 
give  some  notion  of  the  more  populous  German  areas.  In 
Cincinnati,  Bohm  preached  the  first  German  sermon  that 
had  been  heard  there.  It  was  September  4,  1808.  "  The 
village,"  he  writes  in  his  journal,  "promises  to  grow  very 

■were  born.  The  young  Heinrich  received  a  good  education  from  Rosmanu, 
a  Hessian  soldier  who  had  been  captured  with  Rail's  regiment  at  Trenton. 
To  him  Heinrich  owed  his  good  German.  Bohm's  father  belonged  to  the 
United  Brethren,  becoming  a  bishop  of  the  sect,  but  Heinrich  received  his 
inspiration  at  the  Methodist  conferences  of  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia. 

^  In  East  Tennessee  he  remained  for  some  time  on  Pigeon  River  to  preach 
to  the  Germans  there.  This  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  Sevierville.  The 
German  preacher  Hemminger  had  already  preached  in  German  there  (1808), 
which  is  a  clear  indication  of  a  large  and  early  German  settlement  in  this 
region.  Cf.  Der  deutscke  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp  25-35.  It  is  interesting  that 
Bohm  found  Germans  even  in  New  England.  In  Boston  he  stayed  at  the 
house  of  the  Reverend  Bernhard  Othemann, 


THE  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY    431 

rapidly.  It  has  almost  2000  inhabitants."^  After  the 
general  conference  of  1812,  Bohm  discontinued  his  mis- 
sionary travels,  settling  down  to  work  among  the  Germans 
in  Pennsylvania.  Subsequently  he  was  assigned  to  New 
Jersey,  locating  in  Jersey  City.  In  1859,  though  over 
eighty  years  of  age,  he  made  another  tour  of  the  West, 
this  time  crossing  the  mountaias  by  rail.  On  June  8,  1875, 
he  reached  his  centenary,  and  a  great  celebration  was 
held  in  his  honor  in  Trinity  Church,  Jersey  City.  His 
fivescore  years  did  not  prevent  Bohm  from  preaching  a 
sermon  on  this  occasion.  He  died,  January  15,  1876,  in- 
his  one  hundred  and  first  year.  During  his  tours  he  had 
traveled  over  one  hundred  thousand  miles  on  foot  and 
on  horseback,  and  had  seen  prosperous  cities  rise  sponta- 
neously on  what  had  once  been  prairie  and  forest.  He  had 
shared  in  all  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  the  land,  had  seen 
all  the  presidents  of  the  United  States  from  Washington 
to  Grant,  and  had  voted  in  all  the  presidential  elections 
from  1796  to  1872. 

Historical  records,  as  weU  as  the  accounts  of  travelers 
and  preachers,  prove  that  in  the  first  decades  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  the  German  element  was  very  largely  re- 
presented in  the  Ohio  Valley  by  permanent  settlements. 
The  great  immigrations  from  Germany  into  the  Middle 
West  were  destined  soon  to  follow. 

^  He  apologizes  later  in  his  autobiography  for  calling  the  "  Queen  City 
of  the  West "  a  village. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    WINNING    OF    THE   WEST 

III.    (a)    the    advance    of    the    FRONTIER    LINE   TO    THE 
MISSISSIPPI    AND    MISSOURI    RIVERS 

(A)  Westward  progress  of  the  frontier  line,  shown  by  the  census  maps  — 
Descendants  of  Germans  and  foreign-born  Germans  as  frontiersmen  — 

^  Two  centres  of  distribution  on  the  Mississippi,  (1)  New  Orleans,  (2)  St. 
Louis  —  Early  Germans  in  Louisiana  and  Alabama  (Mobile)  —  German 
settlements  along  the  Missouri  River  —  Duden's  farm  and  description  of 
Missouri  —  The  "  Giessener  Gesellschaf  t,"  Follen  and  Miinch  —  German 
towns  and  counties  in  Missouri. 

(B)  Beginning  of  the  advance  of  the  frontier  line  toward  the  Northwest ; 
the  Illinois  territory  opened  by  George  Rogers  Clark  —  Sketch  of  his 
expedition  and  of  the  work  of  his  German  lieutenants,  Bowman  and  Helm 
—  Settlement  at  Vevay,  Indiana  —  The  Harmony  Society  (Rappists)  on 
the  Wabash  in  1815  —  St.  Clair  County,  Illinois  ;  Belleville,  Highland, 
Madison  County  —  Chicago  —  German  settlements  in  Iowa  :  Dubuque, 
Davenport,  Des  Moines,  etc.  —  Germans  in  Michigan  ;  the  missionary 
Baraga  ;  settlers  in  Detroit,  Ann  Arbor,  and  Westphalia  (Ionia  County). 

The  two  foregoing  chapters  described  the  first  two  stages 
in  the  winning  of  the  West  with  reference  to  the  part 
taken  by  the  Germans  and  their  descendants.  The  Virginia 
and  Carolina  Germans  were  found  stationed  on  the  advance 
hne  and  among  the  reserves  that  opened  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  for  settlement.  Coming  from  Kentucky  on  the 
south  and  from  Pennsylvania  on  the  east,  they  pushed 
forward  for  the  conquest  of  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio.  The 
pioneers  of  German  blood  arrived  as  early  as  any,  and 
were  surpassed  by  none  in  securing  a  permanent  foothold 
in  the  newly  settled  areas. 

One  of  the  most  glorious  chapters  in  American  history 
has  been  outlined  in  the  report  of  the  Eleventh  Census  of 


18-45 
45-90 
90  and  "Over  

Cities  over  8,000  inliahilai-ts  in  eaVid  color 
in  circles  propurtinate  Lo  population 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE   POPULATION   IN  1790 


if  RAR» 

OF  \m 

tl^HV£^SITy  OF  ttJUNOlS 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    433 

the  United  States  in  the  volume  on  population/  It  is  the 
history  of  a  century  of  conquest,  1790-1890,  a  conquest 
of  the  vast  territory  lying  between  the  Atlantic  and  Paci- 
fic oceans,  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The 
chapter  is  sketched  by  the  aid  of  maps  illustrating  the 
density  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  at  each 
successive  census  period.  The  frontier  line  in  1790  ran 
parallel  to  the  Appalachian  Mountain  Range,  crossmg 
the  latter  only  in  a  few  j^laces,  —  the  Mohawk  Valley,  the 
Pittsburg  district,  the  Holston  and  Kentucky  lines  of  set- 
tlement. Slowly  the  frontier  advanced  to  the  westward, 
scarcely  reaching  the  Mississippi  by  1820,  showing  that  a 
desperate  struggle  was  going  on  between  the  white  settlers 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  aided  by 
wild  nature's  barriers,  on  the  other.  Sometimes  the  line 
is  involved  and  complex,  but  decade  upon  decade  it  stead- 
ily moves  on,  beyond  the  Mississippi,  onward  to  about  the 
ninety-fifth  meridian  in  1850,  reaching  the  one  hundredth 
(the  beginning  of  the  arid  region)  in  1880,  with  scattered 
settlements  meanwhile  leaping  beyond,  making  a  new 
frontier  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  in  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. The  next  census  report  in  1890  announced  the 
momentous  fact  that  the  frontier  line  had  disappeared 
from  the  map  of  the  United  States.^ 

1  Report  on  Population  of  the  United  States  at  the  Eleventh  Census,  1890, 
part  I,  pp.  xviii  to  xxix. 

2  "  Up  to  and  including  1880  the  country  had  a  frontier  of  settlement,  but 
at  present  the  unsettled  area  has  been  so  broken  by  isolated  bodies  of  settlers 
that  there  hardly  can  be  said  to  be  a  frontier  line.  In  the  discussion  of  its 
extent,  its  westward  movement,  etc.,  it  cannot,  therefore,  any  longer  have 
a  place  in  the  census  reports."  Bulletin  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Census 
for  1800.  F.  J.  Turner,  in  his  essay.  The  Signifcance  of  the  Frontier  in  Amer- 
ican History  (p.  9),  adds  the  following  comment  :  "  This  brief  official  state- 
ment marks  the  closing  of  a  great  historical  movement.  Up  to  our  own  day 
American  history  has  been  in  a  large  degree  the  history  of  the  colonization 
of  the  West.  The  existence  of  an  area  of  free  laud,  its  continuous  recession, 


434  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

For  the  historian  of  the  German  element  in  the  United 
States  no  more  gratifying  field  of  labor  will  be  found  than 
the  location  of  German  settlements  in  the  Western  areas. 
He  will  find  the  German  element  on  the  frontier  line  at 
every  stage  of  its  progress  westward,  securing  and  defend- 
ing it,  or  pushing  it  onward  as  did  the  Palatines  before 
the  Revolutionary  War.  Just  as  in  the  eighteenth,  so  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  two  classes  of  the  German  ele- 
ment must  be  reckoned  with,  those  who  through  one  or 
more  generations  were  native  Americans,  and  secondly, 
those  who  were  born  in  Germany.  The  latter  either  came 
to  better  their  condition,  or  they  were  refugees,  oftener 
political  than  religious  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  native  German  element,  except  where  it  had  dwelt 
in  a  distinctly  German  environment,  showed  complete 
assimilation  and  was  undistinguishable  from  the  native 
stock.  Nevertheless  the  fact  of  its  existence  should  not 
be  overlooked.  It  had  the  advantage  of  position,  also  of 
familiarity  with  the  modes  of  pioneer  life,  when  compared 
with  the  European  representatives  of  the  same  stock. 
This  native  element  was  abundant  in  every  one  of  the 
three  great  currents  of  westward  movement:  (1)  That 
along  the  Mohawk  River  through  central  New  York  to 
Lake  Erie  and  northern  Ohio.  This  was  the  road  for  the 
New  Englanders  to  the  Western  Reserve  district,  but  it  was 
also  the  road  west  for  the  German  element  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley  or  on  the  Hudson,  or  even  in  New  Jersey.  (2)  That 
proceeding  through  central  Pennsylvania  to  Pittsburg,  or 
the  lower  road  following  the  southeastern  border  of  the 
Pennsylvania  mountains  into  Maryland,  then  westward 
on  the  North  Branch  of  the  Potomac  River,  thence  to 

and  the  advance  of  American  settlement  westward,  explain  American  de- 
velopment." 


DISTRIBUTION    OF   THE   POPULATION   EAST   OF  THE   lOOTH   MERIDIAN   IN   1820 


OF  THE 
UNlVERStXy  Qf  ILLINOIS 


THE   ADVANCE   OF   THE   FRONTIER  LINE    435 

Pittsburg  or  Wheeling.  (3)  That  of  the  Valley  of  Vir- 
ginia, following  its  slope  upward  from  the  Potomac  River 
and  down  after  reaching  Lexington,  always  proceeding 
southwestwardly  to  the  narrow  arm  of  Virginia  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Abingdon  (Washington  County,  Vir- 
ginia), thence  to  the  Clinch  and  Holston  rivers,  which 
afforded  an  opening  into  Tennessee,  —  or  to  Cumberland 
Gap,  opening  a  gateway  into  Kentucky. 

But  if  in  the  eighteenth  century  immigrants  from  Ger- 
many could  be  numbered  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  in 
the  nineteenth  they  were  numbered  by  millions.  About  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  German  immigra- 
tion grew  to  be  larger  than  that  of  any  other  European 
stock,  surpassing  even  the  Irish.  In  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury Germany's  addition  to  the  population  of  the  United 
States  was  the  largest  single  contribution  of  any  foreign 
nation.  The  great  bulk  of  the  new  foreign  element  settled 
in  the  growing  West.  The  principle  underlying  the  move- 
ment was  the  same  as  that  apparent  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  newcomers,  who  as  a  class  were  not  wealthy, 
were  looking  for  betterment  of  their  condition,  and 
migrated  to  those  districts  where  the  land  was  most  avail- 
able and  cheap.  Consequently  they  settled  largely  on  the 
Western  frontier.  Being  particularly  well  adapted  to  the 
work  of  the  agriculturist,  the  town-builder,  and  small 
trader,  and  possessing  the  advantage  of  numbers,  the 
Germans  can  claim  the  honor  of  havino^  contributed  a 
larger  share  toward  winning  the  great  Western  territory 
for  civilization  than  any  other  single  foreign  element. 
Their  nearest  rivals  in  numbers,  the  Irish,  were  not  as 
well  distributed  over  the  Western  areas,  settling,  as  the 
census  reports  show,  more  largely  in  the  populous  towns. 

An  examination  of  the  geographical  location  of  the  Ger- 


436  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

man  immigration  according  to  the  statistics  of  the  last  cen- 
sus (1900)  ^  will  show  that  the  Germans  have  located  in  the 
West  in  greater  numbers  than  elsewhere.  Of  the  total 
number  born  in  Germany,  2,666,990,  who  were  living  in 
the  United  States  in  1900,  there  were  883,908  located  in 
the  North  Atlantic  division ;  72,705  in  the  South  Atlantic ; 
1,461,603,  or  more  than  one  half,  in  the  North  Central 
division,  including  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wis- 
consin, Minnesota,  Iowa,  Missouri,  North  and  South 
Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kansas;  while  in  the  South  Central 
and  Western  divisions  there  were  109,743  and  135,459 
respectively.  This  shows  that  the  Germans  in  the  Western 
far  outnumber  those  of  the  Eastern  areas,  however  great 
may  be  their  fondness  for  the  larger  cities  of  the  Atlantic 
coast.  They  have  advanced  into  every  new  state  in  numbers 
proportionate  to  the  resources  of  the  section.  The  settle- 
ments described  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  chapters 
bring  us  to  the  decade  1810-20.  On  the  maps  of  the  cen- 
sus reports  ^  we  notice  that  settlements  on  the  Mississippi 
Eiver  were  begun  by  1810,  and  until  1820  increased 
principally  in  two  localities :  (1)  around  St.  Louis  to  the 
north  and  south,  on  both  shores  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
westward  on  the  Missouri;  (2)  around  New  Orleans  and 
the  rivers  near  by,  that  flow  into  the  Mississippi.  After 
the  Louisiana  Purchase  had  been  made  in  1803,  the  Val- 
ley of  the  Mississippi  was  open  for  settlement,  but  New 
Orleans  did  not  immediately  increase  in  population  to  any 
large  degree.  Not  until  after  the  battle  of  New  Orleans, 
in  1815,  did  immigration  advance  more  rapidly  toward 

*  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States,  1900,  vol.  i,  "Population,"  part  i, 
pp.  clxxiii  ~  clxxiv,  table  Lxxxii. 

^  Preceding  pages  xxi  and  xxiii  of  the  Report  on  Population  of  the  United 
States  at  the  Eleventh  Census,  1890,  parti.  The  maps  of  1790,  1820,  1850, 
and  1890  have  been  inserted  in  the  present  and  succeeding  chapters.    . 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE   POPULATION   EAST  OF  THE  lOOTH  MERIDIAN   IN   1850 


UTRARY 

Of  f  HE 

UNIVERSITY  Of  ttJJNOIS 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    437 

Louisiana,  receiving  serious  setbacks,  however,  by  the  in- 
roads of  yellow  fever. 

There  had  been  German  settlers  shortly  after  the  foun- 
dation of  New  Orleans  by  the  French  under  Bienville  in 
1718.  The  speculator,  John  Law,*  had  founded  in  Paris  a 
Western  Company  for  the  settlement  of  the  lower  Missis- 
sippi. His  tract  lay  on  the  Arkansas  River,  not  far  from 
its  mouth,  and  he  sent  out  agents  for  his  colonizing  scheme 
to  France,  Germany,  and  Switzerland.  In  the  Palatinate, 
owing  to  conditions  described  in  a  previous  chapter,  the 
recruiting  agents  were  very  successful.  About  two  thou- 
sand persons  are  said  to  have  accepted  the  inducements 
of  free  passage,  land,  and  citizenship,  for  three  years' 
service  in  the  "  earthly  paradise  of  Louisiana."  On  their 
arrival  it  was  found  that  no  preparations  had  been  made 
to  receive  them  on  the  Mississippi,  and  they  were  there- 
fore landed  on  the  coast  at  Biloxi,  near  Mobile  Bay.  In 
that  locality  they  are  said  to  have  remained  five  years, 
most  of  them  becoming  victims  of  Southern  fevers. 
Their  camps  became  heaps  of  graves,  where  remained 
a  few  ghastly  spectres  that  yet  stole  from  place  to 
place.^  Some  sought  food  in  the  woods,  others  made  their 
way  to  the  English  and  Spanish  settlements,  only  a  few 
saw  their  fatherland  again.  Those  who  remained,  about 
three  hundred  in  number,  were  settled,  in  1722,  west  of 
the  Mississippi  in  Attakapas,  Southern  Louisiana.  They 

1  John  Law  (1671-1729)  established  a  private  bank  in  Paris  in  1716.  His 
plan  of  a  national  bank  and  the  issue  of  paper  money  was  adopted  by  the 
French  Regent.  In  1719  depreciated  national  currency  was  received  at  its 
par  value  in  payment  of  shares  in  Law's  scheme  for  colonizing  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  Speculation  and  inflated  currency  caused  a  panic  in  1720. 
Encyclopcedic  Dictionary  of  American  History,  vol.  i,  p.  386. 

^  Morbois,  History  of  Louisiana  ;  quoted  by  Eickhoff,  In  derneuen  Heimat, 
p.  316. 


438  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

are  said  to  have  become  prosperous,  and  undoubtedly  they 
were  immune  against  disease. 

A  Swedish  captain,  Karl  Friedrich  D'Arensbourg,  like- 
wise induced  by  Law's  promises,  settled  some  Alsatians  and 
Wiirtembergers  about  twenty  miles  above  New  Orleans,  in 
the  St.  Charles  District.  They  were  more  fortunate,  and  in 
1750  their  settlement  was  still  the  most  important  in  that 
region.  The  names,  Lac  des  Allemands,  the  river  Bayou 
AUemand,  and  the  village  Allemand,  found  in  the  region 
of  their  settlement,  still  bear  witness  of  their  existence. 

Germans  from  abroad  did  not  again  come  to  New 
Orleans  until  about  1830.  At  that  time  a  large  number 
were  transported  to  the  upper  Mississippi  by  way  of  New 
Orleans.*  Many  German  immigrants  tarried  at  New  Or- 
leans and  remained,  as  often  happened  in  the  seaports 
where  immigrants  landed.  A  little  after  1840  the  city  is 
said  to  have  numbered  ten  thousand  Germans  among  its 
inhabitants.  For  the  most  part  they  were  not  wealthy, 
and  because  they  had  not  the  means  to  leave  during  the 
unhealthy  period,  great  numbers  filled  the  wet  graves  of 
the  city.  In  1843  almost  a  thousand  are  said  to  have 
perished.  Many  dwelt  in  Algiers,  opposite  New  Orleans, 
and  were  described  as  prosperous  and  gay.  In  the  city 
proper  the  Germans  commonly  lived  in  the  English 
quarter,  only  a  few  in   the   French,  and   none    in   the 

1  An  evidence  of  the  immigration  was  the  founding  of  the  "  Deutsche 
Gesellschaft  "  of  New  Orleans,  June  2,  1847,  for  the  protection  of  German 
immigrants.  At  the  time  of  its  foundation  it  had  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 
members.  Between  June,  1847,  and  May,  1887,  over  284,900  Germans 
landed  at  New  Orleans.  Cf.  the  pamphlets  of  J.  Hanno  Deiler,  Zur  Ge- 
schichte  der  Dentschen  am  unteren  Mississippi.  (New  Orleans,  1901.)  Also, 
Louisiana  ein  Heim  fur  deutsche  Ansiedler,  p.  4.  (1895.)  The  important  dis- 
coveries by  the  same  author,  contained  in  his  Settlement  of  the  German  Coast 
of  Louisiana,  and  the  Creoles  of  German  Descent  (see  German  American  Annals 
(1909),  N.  s.  vol.  vii),  appeared  too  late  to  be  incorporated  above. 


Ciaoii  #r  I  ^,1^    Y  "^  Tttrt  B»>"f 


lflatoO"(?  , 


L«»iiiti' 


B[M»t 


-    V  V 


M^ 


^ 


r-X 


L       .-S- 


Si 


0 


^ 


V 


jyllON  (  CLUDINO   INDIANS  NOT  TAXED)  IN  1890 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE     439 

Spanish  quarter.  There  were  also  German  settlements  in 
St.  Peters,  Baton  Rouge,  and  on  the  Red  River;  also  in 
the  towns  of  Alexandria,  Natchitoches,  and  Shreveport.^ 
In  general  the  lower  Mississippi,  because  of  its  treacher- 
ous climate,  was  not  favorable  to  German  immigration. 
The  German  settler  throve  better  in  a  climate  more 
closely  resembling  his  own,  though,  to  do  him  justice,  he 
fared  no  worse  in  tropical  latitudes  than  other  North 
Europeans. 

Examining  the  map  of  1820,  we  notice  an  uninhabited 
tract  along  both  shores  of  the  Mississippi  north  of  the 
present  state  of  Louisiana.  The  western  shore  was  colo- 
nized first,  the  Arkansas  River  territory  attracting  set- 
tlers. In  the  year  1836  sixty  families  from  Rheinhessen 
immigrated  to  Arkansas,  settling  near  Little  Rock.  Their 
leader  was  the  Reverend  Mr.  Klingelhoffer,^  the  friend 
and  host  of  the  German  traveler  and  novelist,  Friedrich 
Gerstacker.  The  latter  wrote  a  number  of  fascinating 
romances,  e.  g.,  "The  Regulators  of  Arkansas,"  "Pirates 
of  the  Mississippi,"  "  Hunting  Tours,"  etc.,^  based  upon 
his  experiences  in  this  wild  territory,  and  he  undoubt- 
edly owed  Klingelhoffer  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  having 
introduced  him  to  many  of  the  scenes  he  later  portrayed 
so  vividly. 

St.  Louis  was  the  other  centre  of  distribution  on  the 
Mississippi  River  for  the  Western  territory.  Settlements 
soon  extended  to  the  north  and  south  on  the  Missouri  and 
Illinois  sides,  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  then  along 

^  Cf.  Loher,  Geschichte  und  Zustdnde  der  Deutschen  in  Amerika,  pp.  208, 
323.  (Gottingen  (2d  edition),  1855.) 

^  The  name  is  so  spelt  by  Loher,  and  EickhofE ;  Korner  writes  "  Klingen- 
hofer." 

'  Die  Regulatoren  in  Arkansas  (1845),  Die  Flusspiraten  des  Mississippi 
(18-48),  Streifu.  Jagdzuge  (1844),  Mississippi-Bilder  (1847-1848),  etc. 


440  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  Missouri  upstream  like  a  long  index  finger  pointing 
to  the  West  (see  map  following  p.  436).  In  these  early 
settlements  native  Americans  of  German  blood  were 
numerous  beyond  any  doubt.  They  came  from  the  Ohio 
Valley  or  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  the  districts 
that  had  struggled  and  waited  for  the  opening  of  the 
Mississippi.  Some  came  from  Maryland  and  Virginia,  or 
other  Eastern  states,  as,  for  instance,  Henry  Geyer  from 
Frederick,  Maryland,  who  became  a  noted  jurist  and  later 
a  United  States  Senator  from  Missouri.  In  1817  Missouri 
had  60,000  inhabitants,  and  in  1821  it  was  admitted  as  a 
state,  but  no  Germans  from  abroad  had  as  yet  settled 
there.  Soon  after,  in  1824,  two  Germans,  Gottfried 
Duden,  a  graduate  in  law  and  medicine,  accompanied  by 
Eversmann,  an  agriculturist,  came  to  the  United  States 
with  the  purpose  of  founding  a  home  in  the  Missouri 
territory.  They  landed  at  Baltimore,  journeyed  by  way  of 
Wheeling  to  St.  Louis,  where  on  making  inquiries  at  the 
land  office,  they  were  provided  with  charts  of  available 
land  on  the  Missouri  River.  On  their  search  they  lodged 
overnight  on  the  farm  of  a  Pennsylvania  German,  who 
called  their  attention  to  some  vacant  congressional  land 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  offered  to  take  care  of  them 
until  they  had  chosen  their  location.  Duden  acquiesced, 
and  purchased  about  two  hundred  and  seventy  acres  ^  above 
the  Femme-Osage  River,  about  fifty  English  miles  above 
the  mouth  of  the  Missouri.  Being  possessed  of  means,  he 
had  his  land  cleared  and  cultivated  for  him,  while  he  em- 

1  Most  of  it  was  congressional  land,  bought  at  31-25  an  acre.  Duden's 
companion  purchased  about  130  acres  adjoining.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
Daniel  Boone  had  lived  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  from  1795  to  1804, 
after  leaving  Kentucky.  For  want  of  a  title  he  lost  his  land  again  after 
the  United  States  acquired  possession  in  1803.  But  in  consideration  of  his 
services  Congress  confirmed  his  title  to  another  tract  in  1812. 


THE  ADVANCE  OF  THE  FRONTIER  LINE    441 

ployed  his  leisure  hours  writing  a  romantic  description 
of  his  journey  to  America  and  the  attractions  of  a  life 
spent  in  the  primeval  forests  of  the  Far  West.  His  book 
was  published  in  Germany  and  went  through  many 
editions.^ 

His  skillful  pen  mingled  fact  and  fiction,  interwove 
experience  and  imagination,  pictured  the  freedom  of  the 
forest  and  of  democratic  institutions  in  contrast  with  the 
social  restrictions  and  political  embarrassments  of  Europe. 
Many  thousands  of  Germans  pondered  over  this  book  and 
enthused  over  its  sympathetic  glow.  Innumerable  reso- 
lutions were  made  to  cross  the  ocean  and  build  for  the 
present  and  succeeding  generations  happy  homes  on  the 
far-famed  Missouri. 

At  first  there  came  a  large  number  of  farmers  and 
laborers  from  Westphalia  and  Hannover.  They  were  fol- 
lowed by  many  people  of  a  higher  social  class,  who  settled 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Duden's  farm  in  Warren  (then 
Montgomery)  County,  Missouri.  The  latter  group  con- 
sisted of  counts  and  barons,  scholars,  preachers,  gentle- 
men-farmers, officers,  merchants  and  students,  all  of  them 
possessing  some  means  and  therefore  unaccustomed  and 
not  willing  to  do  the  work  of  laborers.  The  plain  farmers, 
after  years  of  toil,  prospered  almost  without  exception, 
but  the  others  as  constantly  went  backward.  When  they 
had  completely  exhausted  their  means  of  support,  they 

^  Berichte  ilber  eine  Relse  nach  den  westlichen  Staaten  Nordamerikas  und 
einen  mehrjahrigen  Aufenthalt  am  Missouri  (in  den  Jahren  1824,  1825,  1826, 
und  1827)  in  Bezug  auf  Auswanderung  und  Uebervolkerung,  oder :  Das  Lehen 
im  Innern  der  Vereinigten  Staaten  und  dessen  Bedeutung  fiir  die  hdusliche  und 
politische  Lage  der  Europder  dargestellt,  (a)  in  einer  Sammlung  von  Brie/en,  (b) 
in  einer politischen  Abhandlung,  (c)  in  einem  ratgebenden  Nachtrag.  Gedruckt 
zu  Elherfeld  im  Jahre  1829 ;  zweite  Original-Ausgabe,  mit  vielen  Zusdtzen 
(Bonn,  1834)  ;  Auf  Kosten  der  Schweizerschen  Auswanderungsgesellschaft  ge- 
druckt. (St.  Gallen,  1832.) 


442  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

would  either  go  to  ruin  utterly/  or  begin  life  anew  with 
the  determination  to  labor  and  succeed.  Owing  to  the 
fact  that  so  many  of  the  colonists  had  been  educated  in 
the  German  gymnasia,  and  there  received  thorough  in- 
struction in  Latin  and  Greek,  their  abode  was  called  the 
"  Latin  settlement."  The  epithet,  "  Latin  farmers,"  has 
commonly  been  applied  to  the  scholarly  German  settlers, 
who  became  quite  numerous  about  the  revolutionary 
periods  of  1830  and  1848,  a  class  of  cultivated  men,  yet 
frequently  unpractical,  for  whom  manual  labor  proved 
a  hard  school  of  experience. 

The  next  German  settlement  of  some  size  in  Missouri 
was  made  under  the  auspices  of  the  so-called  "  Giessener 
Gesellschaft."  It  was  an  ambitious  plan  to  concentrate 
German  immigration  upon  some  territory  of  the  West 
which  had  not  yet  been  admitted  as  a  state.  We  shall  ob- 
serve similar  ventures  planned  here  or  in  Germany  and 
directed  to  other  localities  ;  for  instance,  to  Texas  and  to 
Wisconsin.  The  idea  of  immigration  on  a  large  scale  to 
the  Mississippi  territory  started  with  two  young  men  of 
great  ability,  Paul  Follenius  and  Friedrich  Miinch.  They 
were  idealists,  who  began  the  fight  for  political  liberty  in 
their  own  country,  but  saw  every  effort  foiled  by  the  re- 
actionary policy  of  the  German  governments.  They  felt 
keenly  the  degradation  of  paternalism  exercised  by  incap- 
able and  tyrannical  autocrats,  and  they  were  hunted  down 
by  an  Argus-eyed  system  of  espionage.  It  was  about  1830, 
a  period  of  blasted  hopes,  when  the  day  for  constitutional 
government  had  not  yet  come  for  Germany.  Miinch  sug- 
gested immigration  to  Follenius,  but  the  latter  shook  his 

1  Many  committed  suicide,  some  died  as  beggars  on  the  street ;  the  latter 
was  the  experience  of  a  Hannoverian  count  known  to  Friedrich  Miinch  (see 
below). 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE     443 

head,  for  he  considered  such  a  course  tantamount  to  de- 
serting the  flag,  in  their  glorious  fight  for  liberty.  When 
he  began  to  see  the  hopelessness  of  the  cause  that  ani- 
mated his  youthful  ambition,  he  took  refuge  in  a  plan  of 
the  following  kind,  which  he  concocted  together  with 
Miinch:^  "We  must  not  go  from  here  [Germany]  with- 
out realizino^  a  national  idea  or  at  least  making-  the  besfin- 
nings  toward  its  realization ;  the  foundation  of  a  new  and 
free  Germany  in  the  great  North  American  Republic 
shall  be  laid  by  us ;  we  must  therefore  gather  as  many  as 
possible  of  the  best  of  our  people  about  us  when  we  emi- 
grate, and  we  must  at  the  same  time  make  the  necessary 
arrangements  providing  for  a  large  body  of  immigrants 
to  follow  us  annually,  and  thus  we  may  be  able  at  least 
in  one  of  the  American  territories  to  establish  an  essen- 
tially German  state,  in  which  a  refuge  may  be  found  for 
all  those  to  whom,  as  to  ourselves,  conditions  at  home 
have  become  unbearable,  —  a  territory  which  we  shall  be 
able  to  make  a  model  state  in  the  great  republic."  Paul 
FoUenius,  gigantic  in  stature,  impressive  in  personality,  of 
keen  wit,  sure  tact,  and  indomitable  will,  was  a  man  born 
to  take  the  lead  in  popular  movements.^  Miinch,  of  a 
more  conservative  and  practical  turn  of  mind,  though 
pleased  with  the  idea,  was  aware  of  the  difficulties  of  so 
grand  an  undertaking. 

Such  was  the  bescinningf  of  the  "Giessener  Auswan- 
derungsgesellschaft."   The  company,   centralized  in  and 

*  Cf.  the  "  Reminiscencoe  "  of  Friedrieh  Miinch  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier, 
vol.  i,  pp.  188-189.  Paul  Follenius  (or  Follen)  was  the  brother  of  Carl  Fol- 
len,  professor  of  German  literature  at  Harvard. 

^  Unfortunately  he  died,  at  the  prime  of  life,  from  a  nervous  fever  con- 
tracted in  184:4  at  a  time  of  floods  and  great  hardships  in  Missouri.  He  was 
buried  under  a  group  of  sugar  maples,  his  favorite  place  on  the  farm,  the 
same  on  which  Duden  had  lived  for  several  years,  when  he  lodged  with  the 
Pennsylvania  German.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  p.  187. 


444  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

depending  for  its  membership  mostly  upon  the  grand- 
duchy  of  Hessen,  expected  first  to  select  for  its  German 
state  the  territory  of  Arkansas/  but,  receiving  unfavor- 
able reports  from  those  that  had  gone  before,  the  later 
bodies  of  immigrants  went  to  Missouri,  settling  in  various 
parts  of  the  state.  The  larger  part  of  them  in  1834  settled 
■with  Miinch  and  Follenius  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Mis- 
souri River,  in  the  present  Warren  County,  where  Duden 
had  passed  his  idyllic  existence  ("das  Dudensche  Idyll"). 
This  was  destined  to  become  the  centre  of  the  most  wide- 
spread settlement  of  Germans  west  of  the  Mississippi.  On 
both  sides  of  the  Missouri  River,  from  its  mouth,  a  little 
to  the  north  of  St.  Louis,  upward  a  distance  of  about  125 
miles,  all  is  German  territory.  In  all  towns  from  St.  Louis 
to  Jefferson  City,  such  as  St.  Charles,  Washington,  Her- 
mann,^ Warrenton,  Boonville,  and  even  beyond  and 
including  Kansas  City,  the  Germans  are  very  numerous, 
generally  constituting  over  one  half  of  the  population.  In 
1870  St.  Charles,  with  seven  or  eight  thousand  inhabitants, 
was  more  than  three  fourths  German.  On  the  north  side 
of  the  river  the  Germans  numbered  nine  tenths  of  the 
population  in  Warren  County,  in  St.  Charles  County  over 
one  half.  In  the  latter  county  Germans  from  Osnabriick 
and  Oldenburg  had  settled  in  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
ties, before  the  arrival  of  Duden.  On  the  south  side  of 
the  Missouri  Germans  formed  one  half  the  population  of 
Franklin  and  Gasconade  counties.  In  St.  Louis,  Lincoln, 
Montgomery,  and  Osage   counties  innumerable  German 

'  Miinch  suggests  in  his  reminiscences  that  Iowa  would  have  been  the 
best  location.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  p.  189. 

^  For  a  history  of  the  settlement  of  Hermann  (1837)  by  the  German 
Settlement  Society  of  Philadelphia,  its  subsequent  independence,  and  the 
development  of  its  important  industry,  the  production  of  wine,  see  the  work 
of  William  G.  Bek,  The  German  Settlement  Society  and  its  Colony,  Hermann, 
Missouri,  Americana  Germanica  Press,  Philadelphia,  1907. 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    445 

communities  were  found.  In  Cole  County  (Jefferson  City), 
in  Moniteau/  and  to  the  west  and  southwest  in  Morgan, 
Pettis  (SedaHa),  and  Benton  counties,  large  groups  of 
German  immigrants  established  permanent  homes.  West- 
phalia, in  Osage,  and  Deepwater,  in  Henry  County,  were 
German  towns.  Kansas  City  and  St.  Louis  owed  a  large 
part  of  their  prosperity  to  their  German  citizens. 

The  Germans  of  the  Missouri  Valley  differed  in  religion, 
but  that  was  to  them  no  cause  for  dissension.^  Catholics, 
Protestants,  and  Sectarians,  living  in  harmony,  cultivated 
the  soil  side  by  side.  In  material  resources  they  developed 
with  the  times,  their  initial  difficulties  and  hardships  being 
relieved  somewhat  by  the  better  times  that  followed  the 
Mexican  War  and  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California. 
Every  acre  of  the  country  was  soon  under  cultivation. 
Neat  cottages  of  frame  or  brick,  large  barns  and  farm 
buildings,  dotted  both  banks  of  the  Missouri.  Like  the 
Pennsylvania  farmer,  the  Missouri  German  took  good  care 
of  his  cattle  and  horses,  and  planted  gardens.  In  course  of 
time  the  farmers  used  modern  agricultural  machinery  and 
put  larger  areas  under  cultivation.  They  took  particular 
pride  in  keeping  the  land  in  their  possession  generation 
after  generation.  German  settlers  acquired  the  best  land, 

^  Tiptou,  Missouri,  162  miles  from  St.  Louis,  in  Moniteau  County,  with 
1000  inhabitants  in  1870,  was  nearly  one  half  German.  Der  deutsche  Pionier, 
vol.  ii,  p.  8. 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  pp.  269-273,  contains  an  article  bearing  on 
this  point  by  J.  G.  Briibl,  a  prominent  German  settler.  He  was  a  Catholic, 
and  the  German  townships  about  him  were  Protestant.  It  is  curious  to  note 
that  Briihl  served  all  the  colonists,  of  whatever  denomination  they  might  be, 
as  a  sort  of  minister-teacher,  in  the  manner  of  Holzklo,  of  Madison  County, 
Virginia.  (Cf.  Chapter  vii,  pp.  180-181.)  Since  they  had  no  minister,  he  was 
accustomed  to  act  as  leader  in  prayers  and  scriptural  reading.  When  the 
Lutherans  became  very  numerous  they  appealed  to  the  patriarchal  Briihl  to 
get  them  a  Lutheran  minister,  which  he  did  on  one  occasion,  and  on  another 
listened  to  the  trial  sermon  of  a  candidate  for  a  Lutheran  pulpit  in  his  dis- 
trict, and  gave  a  favorable  opinion  (p.  270). 


446  THE   GEKMAN  ELEMENT 

as  when  they  bought  the  valuable  estate  of  Daniel  Boone 
in  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Femme-Osage  in  St.  Charles 
County. 

The  Germans  almost  to  a  man  were  opposed  to  slavery, 
and,  as  will  be  seen  in  a  later  chapter,  turned  the  tide  of 
sentiment  in  Missouri  in  favor  of  the  Union  cause.  The 
dream  of  Follenius  ^  and  Miinch  was  realized  in  a  manner 
different  from  their  plans.  No  German  state  was  formed, 
—  such  a  scheme  was  nowhere  successful,  —  but  Germans 
accomplished  what  earlier  settlers  had  not  done :  they 
gained  a  permanent  foothold  for  themselves,  their  de- 
scendants, and  thousands  of  their  countrymen,  and  they 
nobly  served  the  land  of  their  adoption.  Friedrich  Miinch 
is  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  high  grade  of  German 
settlers  that  appeared  in  the  nineteenth  century.  He  was 
a  "Latin  farmer,"  completely  successful.  Leaving  brilliant 
prospects  behind,  he  chose  not  to  sacrifice  his  republican 
principles,  and  sailed  with  Follenius  to  America.  With  his 
own  hand  he  cleared  the  ground  and  tilled  the  soil  on  his 
Missouri  farm,^  and  adapted  himself  to  every  condition 
of  life  in  the  new  country.  He  became  a  leader  of  his 
people,  noted  for  his  frankness  and  clearness  of  speech. 
He  took  a  prominent  part  in  politics  during  the  agitations 
that  preceded  and  accompanied  the  Civil  War,  and  in  1862 
was  elected  to  the  state  senate.  Throughout  his  political 
career  he  was  always  of  the  people  and  for  the  people,  and 
his  intelligent  conservatism  and  plain-spoken  honesty  made 

'  The  widow  of  Follenius  was  still  living  in  1869,  and  had  six  married 
children  and  about  twenty  grandchildren.  Friedrich  Miinch  was  likewise 
blessed  with  a  numerous  progeny. 

^  Munch's  settlement  was  near  Dntzow,  in  Warren  County.  Cf.  Der 
deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vii,  pp.  53-59  (Rattermann,  "  Ein  Besuch  bei  Fried- 
rich Miinch  ").  Ibid.,  vo).  xi,  pp.  316-319  ("  Eine  deutsche  Niederlassung 
am  Missouri,"  von  Fr.  Miinch), 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    447 

him  stand  out  prominently  in  the  Missouri  assembly.  He 
was  a  frequent  contributor  to  German  newspapers,  on 
political,  religious,  and  social  topics,  and  there  also  he  ap- 
peared sane,  sound,  and  public-spirited/ 

The  Missouri  Germans  as  early  as  1835-36  made  expe- 
ditions to  the  Far  Western  plains.  Captain  John  A.Sutter, 
later  prominent  as  the  pioneer  of  California,  and  August 
Laufkotter  made  an  expedition  into  the  country  of  the 
Apaches  for  the  purpose  of  trading.  Their  ventures  were 
not  very  successful  financially,  but  they  made  noteworthy 
explorations  ;  for  instance,  Avhen  Laufkotter,  starting  from 
the  camp  of  the  Apaches  with  several  Delaware  Indian 
guides,  pressed  onward  to  the  confluence  of  the  Gila  and 
the  Colorado  rivers,  in  the  southwestern  corner  of  Arizona. 

The  site  of  St.  Louis  attracted  Germans  in  great  num- 
bers. St.  Louis  was  the  terminus  of  the  steamboat  lines 
from  New  Orleans,  the  starting-point  for  navigation  to 
the  upper  Mississippi,  Illinois,  the  Missouri,  and,  most 
important  of  all,  to  the  Ohio  River.  Before  the  days  of  the 
railroad,  Chicago,  the  metropolis  of  the  Northwest,  could 
not  compete  with  St.  Louis.  Immigration  had  not  as  yet 
found  its  way  in  that  direction.  St.  Louis  was  then  about 
four  times  the  size  of  Chicago.  About  1845  two  German 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier  (vol.  ii,  pp.  230-235)  gives  a  list  of  the  early  set- 
tlers of  the  "  Giessener  Gesellschaft."  Among  them  was  Professor  David 
Gobel,  from  Coburg.  He  settled  with  his  family  six  miles  west  of  Washing- 
ton, Missouri,  and  was  prominent  as  a  teacher  of  mathematics  and  lecturer 
on  astronomy  in  St.  Louis,  and  as  a  mathematical  expert  in  the  surveying 
service  of  the  Western  States.  His  son,  Gert  Gobel,  was  born  in  Coburg  in 
1816,  assisted  his  father  as  a  surveyor,  was  a  successful  farmer,  hunter,  and 
surveyor.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion,  he  was  very  active  in  organizing 
the  "  Home  Guards  "  of  Washington  County.  He  was  elected  to  the  state 
legislature  in  1862,  and  was  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves.  He  served  six  years  as  a  member  of  the  Missouri  state  legislature. 
Cf .  Gert  Gobel,  "  Langer  als  ein  Menschenleben  in  Missouri,"  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vol.  x,  pp.  333  £f.  and  361  ff. 


448  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

newspapers  were  issued  in  St.  Louis  daily.  The  city  was  a 
distributing-centre  of  the  German  population  for  Missouri 
and  the  land  west  of  the  Mississippi,  just  as  Philadelphia 
had  been  for  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia. 

An  interesting  group  of  German  settlers  arrived  at 
St.  Louis  in  1839.  They  were  the  Saxon  Lutherans  who 
came  under  the  leadership  of  their  bishop,  Martin  Ste- 
phan.  They  left  Germany  for  rehgious  reasons,  being  dis- 
satisfied with  the  reforms  introduced  into  the  established 
Protestant  churches,  and  they  called  themselves  Alt- 
Lutheraner.^  Since  most  of  them  came  from  Saxony,  they 
received  the  name  Saxon  Lutherans.  Stephan  in  Dresden, 
with  marked  gifts  of  eloquence  and  shrewdness,  was  the 
natural  leader.  His  defects  of  character,  not  his  princi- 
ples, were  severely  attacked  abroad.  His  many  followers, 
however,  were  not  concerned  about  these  charges,  but 
followed  his  plan  of  emigration,  which,  under  the  spell 
of  Duden's  book,  brought  them  to  Missouri.  They  settled 
in  Perry  County,  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  south  of  St. 
Louis.  It  developed  that  the  accusations  abroad  concern- 
ing Stephan's  private  life  had  been  justified,  and  he  was 
accordingly  deposed.^  Among  the  Saxon  Lutherans  were 
the  Walthers,  who  became  very  prominent  in  the  Missouri 
Synod.  Six  settlements  were  founded  on  the  property  of 
the  company  in  Perry  County :  Wittenberg,  Seelitz,  Dres- 
den, Altenburg,  Frohna,  and  Johannesberg,  none  of  them, 
however,  becoming  important  towns.^ 

^  The  reforms  meant  a  greater  degree  of  nationalization,  uniting  the  two 
Protestant  churches,  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed,  under  one  state  or- 
ganization called  the  Union. 

2  The  leaders  of  the  congregation.  May  27,  1839,  published  in  the  St. 
Louis  paper,  Anzeiger  des  Westens, the  fact  of  the  deposition  and  its  causes. 

3  Cf.  Der  deutsche Pimier,  vol.  vi, pp.  157-159  (F.  Schnake  "Die  Eiuwan- 
derung  der  Sachsen  "). 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE  FRONTIER  LINE    449 

Germans  soon  found  their  way  into  the  more  southerly 
counties  of  Missouri.  Iron,  Washington,  and  St.  Frangois 
contain  a  mixed  population  with  a  good  representation  of 
Germans.  In  Scott  County  were  the  German  towns  New 
Hamburg,  Dommiiller,  Duhlstadt,  Morley,  and  Commerce. 
Cape  Girardeau  County,  though  originally  settled  by 
French  people,  later  received  a  very  large  German  pop- 
ulation. Others  located  in  Bollinger,  Mississippi,  and 
Butler  counties.  None  of  the  southeastern  counties  were 
affected  by  the  early  German  immigrations,  except  per- 
haps Cape  Girardeau  (1838).  The  movement  of  Penn- 
sylvania Germans  to  Missouri  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  on  the  25th  of  March,  1843,  a  steamer  stopped  at 
St.  Louis  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  German  passengers 
from  Pittsburg,  the  forerunners  of  a  company  of  three 
thousand  that  were  to  settle  in  the  neighborhood  of  Han- 
nibal, Missouri. 

(b)  beginning  of  the  advance  of  the  frontier  line 
toward  the  northwest 

Looking  again  at  the  census  map  of  1820,  we  observe 
that  the  Northwestern  States  including  northern  Indiana 
and  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota,  were  at 
that  time  practically  undiscovered  territory  for  the  Ameri- 
can pioneer.  The  southern  part  of  Indiana  (along  the  Ohio 
and  Wabash  rivers)  and  the  southern  and  southwestern 
parts  of  Illinois  (along  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers)  had 
already  begun  to  receive  permanent  settlers.  The  main 
current  of  migration,  however,  had  gone  southwestward, 
following  the  river  courses  to  the  Mississippi  and  thence 
along  this  great  avenue  of  trade  toward  the  Gulf.  The 
immigration  northwestward  toward  the  Great  Lakes  had 
not  yet   begun,  though  George  Rogers   Clark  and  his 


450  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

brave  followers  had  opened  the  Illinois  territory  over 
forty  years  before. 

It  is  not  remote  from  our  subject  to  recall  for  a  moment 
the  deeds  of  that  gallant  leader  and  his  band  of  adventur- 
ous pioneers.  Though  Clark  appealed  for  aid  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  Virginia  and  elsewhere,  the  entire  work  of 
recruiting  his  army  was  left  to  the  originator  of  the  plan. 
Thomas  Jefferson  and  Patrick  Henry  foresaw  indeed  great 
advantages  for  Virginia  and  Kentucky  in  a  successful 
outcome  of  the  Illinois  venture  ;  still,  few  men  could  be 
spared  by  Virginia  from  the  forces  that  were  defending 
the  liberties  of  the  colonies  against  the  British  king.  Great 
secrecy  had  to  be  maintained  by  Clark  concerning  the 
real  purpose  of  his  expedition.  The  recruits  that  were  at- 
tracted by  his  name  and  by  the  prospects  of  large  land  grants 
in  the  conquered  country  were  led  to  believe  that  they 
were  marching  for  the  defense  of  Kentucky.  With  great 
difficulty  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  were  gathered  to- 
gether by  May,  1778,  when  they  started  from  Pittsburg, 
down  the  Ohio,  touching  at  Wheeling  for  stores.  Though 
few  in  number,  the  men  in  this  command  were  a  picked 
lot  of  young  border  settlers,  acquainted  with  the  woods 
and  Indian  warfare.  At  the  falls  of  the  Ohio  (now  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky)  Clark  built  a  fort  and  was  there  joined 
by  a  few  Kentuckians  with  Simon  Kenton.  Some  of  his 
men  were  left  behind  at  the  fort  to  guard  Kentucky,  the 
rest  advanced,  to  conquer  Illinois. 

The  vast  territory  of  Illinois  was  at  that  time  inhabited 
by  warlike  Indian  tribes,  except  here  and  there  on  the 
rivers,  where  a  few  French  settlements  were  located,  some 
of  them  over  a  hundred  years  old.  It  was  Clark's  purpose 
to  win  over  the  French  inhabitants,  and  through  them 
check  the  Indian  tribes.  As  he  was  about  to  start,  he  was 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    451 

rejoiced  at  hearing  that  the  French  alliance  with  the 
American  colonies  had  been  proclaimed,  for  he  knew  that 
that  would  helj)  him  with  the  Creoles.  Since  his  plan  was 
to  take  the  French  settlements  by  surprise,  he  avoided 
the  Mississippi  River  and  continued  on  the  Ohio  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Tennessee ;  from  there  he  started  overland 
to  the  Illinois  towns  on  the  Mississippi.  He  was  fortunate 
in  getting  correct  information  from  American  hunters, 
who  declared  that  Kaskaskia  could  easily  be  taken  by  sur- 
prise. The  latter  settlement,  the  most  important  of  the 
Creole  towns,  was  commanded  by  the  Frenchman  Roch- 
blave,  who  was  faithful  to  the  British  flag.  The  latter  had 
two  or  three  times  as  many  men  as  Clark,  but  they  were 
not  of  the  same  stamp  as  the  American  backwoodsmen. 
From  the  Indians  the  timid  Creoles  had  heard  monstrous 
accounts  of  the  savagery  of  the  "  Long  Knives,"  as  the 
Kentuckians  and  Virginians  were  called.  This  unsavory 
reputation  gave  prestige  to  Clark's  handful  of  men,  who 
arrived  suddenly,  like  demons  rising  from  out  of  the  earth. 
They  effected  a  complete  surprise,  and  put  the  Creoles 
into  a  state  of  panic,  in  which  conditon  they  eagerly 
accepted  any  terms.  Clark  diplomatically  invited  them  to 
become  citizens  of  the  American  RejDublic,  and  thus  he 
converted  them  into  his  allies  agcainst  Great  Britain.  The 
light-hearted  Creoles  were  well  satisfied,  all  except  Roch- 
blave,  who  was  therefore  sent  a  prisoner  to  Virginia.  The 
Creoles  of  Cahokia,  the  settlement  situated  opposite 
St.  Louis,  followed  the  example  of  Kaskaskia,^  taking  the 
oath  of  allegiance. 

The  priest  Gibault  volunteered  to  go  to  Vincennes,  and 

*  Kaskaskia  was  situated  on  the  Kaskaskia  River,  near  its  confluence  with 
the  Mississippi.  It  was  founded  in  1673,  over  a  hundred  years  earlier  than 
the  first  white  man  settled  in  Kentucky.  It  was  the  capital  of  the  Illinois 
territory  until  1818. 


452  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

succeeded  there  in  winning  the  inhabitants  for  the  Amer- 
ican cause.  Since  no  garrison  could  be  spared  to  go  to 
Vincenues,  Captain  Leonard  Helm  was  sent  thither  alone 
to  take  command/  This  mission,  which  was  of  great  im- 
portance, shows  that  Clark  had  a  high  estimate  of  Helm's 
ability.  The  other  three  captains  of  Clark's  forces  were 
John  Montgomery,  Joseph  Bowman,  and  William  Harrod. 
Of  these  four.  Helm  and  Bowman  were  German  Virgin- 
ians. They  were  always  assigned  the  tasks  of  greatest  re- 
sponsibility, obviously  being  the  two  ablest  and  most  re- 
liable commanders  under  Clark.  Captain  Helm  acquitted 
himself  well  at  Vincennes,  training  the  young  Creoles  in 
military  service,  winning  the  population  over  to  the  cause 
of  American  liberty,  and  keeping  the  Indians  at  peace.^ 
His  position,  like  that  of  his  commander,  was  precarious. 
Clark's  own  men  were  so  anxious  to  return  home  that  he 
succeeded  only  in  inducing  a  hundred  Americans  to  serve 
eight  months  longer.  When  he  made  a  pretense  of  leaving 
Kaskaskia,  the  inhabitants  begged  him  to  stay  for  their 
own  protection.  This  gave  him  an  excuse  for  drilling  the 
native  Creole  population.  By  force,  firmness,  and  diplo- 
macy he  kept  the  Indians  pacified,  and  he  also  cultivated 
friendship  with  the  Spanish  commandant  at  St.  Louis. 

Henry  Hamilton,  the  English  commander  at  Detroit, 
had  planned  an  attack  on  Fort  Pitt,  but  Clark's  movements 
put  him  on  the  defensive,  and  he  now  organized  an  expe- 
dition to  recapture  Vincennes,  which,  he  heard,  was  but 

1  Cf.  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  The  West,  vol.  ii,  p.  49.  For  a  graphic 
account  of  the  expedition  of  Clark,  see  the  same  work,  vol.  ii,  chaps.  2  and 
3,  pp.  31-90,  on  which  the  above  account  is  based. 

2  "  Some  volunteers  —  Americans,  French,  and  friendly  Indians  — 
were  sent  to  the  aid  of  the  American  captain  at  Vincennes,  and  the  latter, 
by  threats  and  promises,  and  a  mixture  of  diplomatic  speech-making  with  a 
show  of  force,  contrived,  for  the  time  being,  to  pacify  the  immediately 
neighboring  tribes."  Roosevelt,  supra,  vol.  ii,  p.  55. 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER   LINE    453 

poorly  garrisoned.  In  December,  1778,  with  five  hundred 
men,  of  whom  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  were  whites, 
the  rest  Indians,  Hamilton  appeared  before  Vincennes, 
after  capturing  Helm's  scouts,  and  a  messenger  who  car- 
ried a  note  written  by  Helm  informing  Clark  of  what  was 
happening.  "Helm  showed  so  good  a  front  that  nothing 
was  attempted  until  the  next  day.  .  .  .  Poor  Helm  was 
promptly  deserted  by  all  the  Creole  militia.  The  latter 
had  been  loud  in  their  boasts  until  the  enemy  came  into 
view,  but  as  soon  as  they  caught  sight  of  the  red-coats, 
they  began  to  slip  away  and  run  up  to  the  British  to  sur- 
render their  arms.  He  was  finally  left  with  only  one  or  two 
men,  —  Americans.  Nevertheless  he  refused  the  first  sum- 
mons to  surrender ;  but  Hamilton,  who  knew  that  Helm's 
troops  had  deserted  him  marched  up  to  the  fort  at  the 
head  of  his  soldiers  and  the  American  was  obliged  to 
surrender,  with  no  terms  granted,  save  that  he  and  his 
associates  should  be  treated  with  humanity."  ^  Hamilton 
remained  for  the  winter  at  Vincennes,  believing  himself 
secure  against  all  attacks,  because  of  the  impassability  (as 
he  thought)  of  all  avenues  of  approach.  In  the  following 
spring  he  expected  to  complete  the  re-conquest  of  Illinois. 
He  was  forestalled,  however,  by  the  genius  of  Clark, 
who,  hearing  that  Hamilton  had  kept  but  a  small  garri- 
son of  eighty  men  in  Vincennes,  planned  to  take  him  by 
surprise  before  reinforcements  could  arrive.  The  distance 
overland  from  Kaskaskia  to  Vincennes,  situated  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Wabash  (in  Indiana),  was  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  miles.  The  roads  were  well-nigh  impass- 
able and  the  country  was  flooded,  but  nothing  could 
daunt  the  spirit  of  Clark.  He  drew  together  a  little  gar- 
rison from  the  French  towns,  and  with  some  accessions  of 

^  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  p.  63. 


454  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

young  Creoles,  he  started  on  February  7,  1779,  with  one 
hundred  and  seventy  men.  After  hardships  that  would 
have  discouraged  any  other  leader,  and  which,  indeed, 
the  energetic  Hamilton  had  considered  insurmountable, 
Clark's  expedition  arrived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Vin- 
cennes,  exhausted  from  the  march,  numb  with  cold,  and 
wet  to  the  bone  from  fording  swollen  rivers.  The  exam- 
jdIc  of  their  leader,  however,  inspirited  the  men.  They 
were  organized  in  two  companies,  Clark  leading  the  first, 
consisting  of  two  companies  of  Americans  and  the  Kas- 
kaskia  Creoles.  The  second,  led  by  Bowman,  contained 
his  own  company  and  the  Cahokians.*  Vincennes  was 
taken  by  surprise,  the  fort  resisting  some  time  longer 
than  the  town,  the  Creole  population  being  ever  ready  to 
yield  to  the  superior  force. 

After  the  fort  had  surrendered,  and  Captain  Helm, 
who  had  remained  a  prisoner,  gained  his  freedom,  he  was 
at  once  used  for  important  service.  Clark  sent  Helm  and 
fifty  men  in  boats  up  the  Wabash  to  intercept  a  jjarty  of 
French  volunteers  from  Detroit,  who  were  bringing  to 
Vincennes  bateaux  heavily  laden  with  goods  of  all  kinds, 
to  the  value  of  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling.  In  a  few 
days  Helm  returned,  completely  successful,  and  the  sup- 
plies, together  with  the  goods  taken  at  Vincennes,  were 
distributed  among  the  soldiers,  who  "  got  almost  rich."  ^ 

The  expedition  of  Clark,  opening  the  Illinois  territory 
and  making  possible  the  American  claim  to  the  whole 
Northwest  Territory  bordering  on  the  Great  Lakes,  was  one 
of  the  grandest  achievements  in  the  history  of  the  win- 
ning of  the  West.  The  fact  that  in  this  expedition  the 
two  ablest  captains  of  Clark  were  Bowman  and  Helm  may 

*  This  proves  that  Bowman  was  considered  the  second  in  command. 
^  Cf.  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii,  pp.  85-86. 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    455 

always  remain  a  source  of  gratification  to  the  Germans  of 
this  country  and  particularly  to  Germans  of  the  great 
Northwestern  Territory,  in  which  fertile  and  progressive 
area  they  were  destined  to  outnumber  every  other  national 
element. 

Small  colonies  of  American  settlers  soon  gained  a  foot- 
hold about  the  conquered  French  towns  in  Illinois  and 
Indiana,  as  we  see  indicated  on  the  census  map  of  1790, 
but  it  took  a  score  of  years  before  that  territory  received 
permanent  settlers  in  large  numbers.  The  sections  along 
the  Ohio  River  were  settled  first,  and  in  those  early  set- 
tlements there  were  some  Germans.  In  Indiana  the  Swiss 
settlement  of  Vevay  was  founded,  in  1796.  In  that  year 
a  number  of  wine-growers  had  been  sent  from  the  Can- 
ton of  Vaud  (Waadt)  to  produce  vintages  on  the  Ohio, 
"  the  Po  of  the  New  World." '  The  settlement  (in  pre- 
sent Switzerland  County,  Indiana)  perhaps  dates  from 
1802,  when  Dufour  and  a  number  of  others  bought  thirty- 
seven  hundred  acres,  and  started  vineyards.  A  number 
of  German  farmers  followed  the  original  French  Swiss, 
and  in  1810  the  colony  pressed  their  first  good  vintage, 
of  twenty-four  hundred  gallons.  In  1817,  five  thousand 
gallons  of  wine  were  produced.  Extravagant  hopes  of 
supplanting  the  French  wines  were  not  realized,  however, 
either  in  the  quality  or  the  quantity  of  the  American  pro- 
duct. The  colony  made  no  great  progress,  and  many  of 
its  best  men  left  Vevay  for  Cincinnati.^ 

Very  successful  as  long  as  it  lasted  was  the  commun- 

1  A  metaphor  of  Freiherr  D.  von  Biilow,  who  had  traveled  in  the  West 
shortly  before.  For  an  account  of  the  German  settlements  in  Indiana,  see 
W.  A.  Fritsch,  Zur  Geschichte  des  Deuischtunis  in  Indiana.  Eine  Festschrift 
zur  Indiana-Feier  im  Jahre  1900.  (New  York  :  Steiger,  1896.) 

^  Among  them  was  Captain  Weber,  the  founder  of  the  William  Tell 
Hotel,  in  Cincinnati,  which  once  had  a  considerable  reputation.  Cf .  EickhofP, 
In  der  neuen  Heimat,  pp.  276-277. 


456  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

istic  settlement  of  the  Rappists,  who  in  1815  located  on  the 
Wabash,  in  Posey  County,  Indiana.  This  society  had  been 
founded  by  Johann  Georg  Rapp,  a  native  of  Wiirtem- 
berg,  a  weaver  and  tiller  of  the  soil,  who  in  his  native 
land  had  founded  a  religious  sect  called  the  Harmonists. 
He  left  Wiirtemberg  in  1803,  and  sought  refuge  for 
himself  and  his  community  in  America.  In  1805  he 
founded  the  colony  of  Harmony  in  Butler  County,  Penn- 
sylvania, where  he  continued  until  1815.^  In  the  mean 
time  the  farms  and  property  of  the  Rappists  had  increased 
enormously  in  value,  and  Rapp  was  enabled  to  realize 
$100,000  from  their  sale.  He  then  bought  thirty  thousand 
acres  on  the  Wabash,  where  in  a  few  years,  through  indus- 
try and  thrift,  the  colony  rose  to  still  greater  prosper- 
ity. Another  sale  was  efPected  in  1824  to  Robert  Owen,^ 
and  this  time  fully  $200,000  was  the  price,  exclusive  of 
seven  thousand  acres  sold  to  William  McClure  for  his 
reform  school.  The  Rappists  then  returned  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  they  established  their  third  colony,  at  Econ- 
omy (Beaver  County),  and  where  the  properties  of  the  sect 
increased  to  the  value  of  millions.^  The  Rappists  in  Indi- 

^  Rapp  was  a  benevolent  autocrat,  who  held  the  material  and  religious 
afiPairs  of  his  communistic  order  firmly  in  hand.  Industry  and  economy  were 
the  secret  of  the  extraordinary  success  of  his  model  farms  and  mills.  Rapp 
died  in  1847,  at  the  age  of  ninety.  When  there  were  withdrawals  from  the 
order,  property  was  restored  or  services  paid  for ;  generally  the  members 
were  fanatically  devoted  to  the  founder. 

^  Robert  Owen,  founder  of  English  socialism,  established  his  socialistic 
community  at  New  Harmony  in  1825.  It  failed  in  1827. 

^  An  excellent  account  of  the  Harmony  Society  is  to  be  found  in  the  Ger- 
man-American Annals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  274,  339,  403,  4G7,  571,  597,  665  ;  The 
Harmony  Society  ;  a  Chapter  in  German- American  Culture  History,  by  John  A. 
Bole.  Many  illustrations  accompany  these  articles.  The  membership  of  the 
order  reached  its  highest  point  in  1827,  when  there  were  522  members. 
There  was  a  defection  in  1832,  when  175  members  withdrew  in  a  body  with 
Count  Leon,  receiving  $175,000.  In  1844  the  membership  rose  again  to  385, 
but  since  celibacy  was  enforced  from  the  beginning,  the  order  was  not  self- 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    457 

ana  did  not  isolate  themselves  entirely,  as  did  many  of 
the  other  communistic  societies.  Friedrich  Rapp,  adopted 
son  of  the  founder,  and  from  an  early  period  head  of  all 
the  industrial  activities  of  the  Rappists,  was  one  of  the 
representatives  of  the  county  in  the  political  affairs  of  the 
territory.  He  was,  in  1820,  one  of  the  ten  commissioners 
of  the  state  who  chose  a  site  for  the  state  capital.  Their 
choice  was  Indianapolis,  a  city  which  subsequently  re- 
ceived a  very  large  German  population.^ 

In  Illinois  there  were  some  Germans  who  settled  in  St. 
Clair  County  before  1820.  L.  Schonberger  was  a  grand 
juryman  in  1792;  Friedrich  Grater  in  1796  bought  the 
first  piece  of  land  sold  by  the  sheriff  in  Cahokia.  In  the 
latter  place  hved  also  the  German  Kramer,  whose  French 
neighbors  changed  his  name  to  Cramour.^  Julius  A.  Barns- 
bach  (Barensbach)  settled  with  his  family  in  Madison 
County  as  early  as  1809,  and  many  of  his  relatives  located 
near  by.  Dutch  Hill,  in  St.  Clair  County,  had  its  suggest- 
ive name  before  1816,  and  was  farmed  by  several  Swiss 
families,  under  the  leadership  of  Leonhard  Steiner,  from 
Aargau.  The  large  current  of  German  immigration,  how- 
ever, came  after  1830,  the  possibilities  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  having  been  discovered  during  the  Black  Hawk 
War.^ 

perpetuating.  Few  new  members  joined,  and  in  1894  there  remained  but 
eighteen,  in  1903  but  four  members  (of  whom  three  were  women),  who  are 
the  owners  of  a  vast  property. 

1  Cf.  EickhoflP,  p.  286.  Evansville  (Posey  County)  and  Fort  Wayne 
(Allen  County)  likewise  received  large  German  populations.  Tell  City  on 
the  Ohio  (Indiana  side)  was  founded  by  Swiss  Germans. 

2  Cf.  the  researches  of  E.  B.  Hoffmann  in  Der  deutscJie  Pionier,  vol.  xiii, 
p.  21.  Cf .  also  E.  Mannhardt,  "  Die  altesten  deutschen  Ansiedler  in  Illinois," 
Deutsch-Amerikanische  Geschichtshliitter ,  IJahrgang,  Heft  4,  pp.  50-59.  Vier- 
teljahrschrift  hrg.  v.  d.  D.  A.  Historischen  Gesellschaft  von  Illinois.  (Chi- 
cago, 1901.) 

3  The  Black  Hawk  War  took  place  in  1830-32.  Under  the  provisions  of 


458  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

St.  Clair  County  became  one  of  the  centres  of  German 
influence  in  Illinois.  Across  the  river  from  St.  Louis,  be- 
ginning at  the  north  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri 
and  stretching  southward  to  the  outlet  of  the  Kaskaskia 
River  a  little  above  Chester,  there  is  a  stretch  of  fertile 
upland  about  a  hundred  miles  in  length  and  six  to  ten 
miles  in  breadth.  The  higher  portions  of  this  plateau  are 
wooded,  and  the  bottoms,  stretching  toward  the  Kaskas- 
kia, are  varied  with  woodlands,  prairies,  and  lakes.  Into 
this  territory  was  poured  the  German  immigration,  far 
outnumbering  the  few  wealthy  Virginian  and  American 
landholders,  the  latter  often  of  German  descent,  com- 
ing from  Pennsylvania  or  North  Carolina.  The  German 
immigrants  had  among  them  large  numbers  of  born  lead- 
ers and  "Latin  farmers."  There  were  clustered  together, 
notably  at  Belleville,  a  large  group  of  men  who  had  been 
members  of  the  "  Burschenschaften,"  the  German  stud- 
ent fraternities  of  a  political  cast,  which  had  been  made 
special  objects  of  vengeance  by  the  arbitrary  governors 
of  the  reactionary  period.  Many  friends  of  gymnasium 
or  university  days  were  now  gathered  together  within  the 
radius  of  a  few  miles.  Such  were  Dr.  G.  Engelmann,  Dr. 
G.  Bunsen,  Dr.  A.  Berchelmann,  Gustav  Korner,  Theo- 
dor  Hilgard,  Theodor  Kraft,  Georg  NeuhofP,  Theodor 
and  Adolf  Engelmann,  Karl  Schreiber,  Karl  Friedrich, 
Ernst  Decker,  Wilhelm  Weber,  August  Dilg.  In  1849 
there  was  added  Friedrich  Hecker,  the  leader  of  the  in- 

the  treaty  with  the  chiefs  of  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians  at  Prairie  du  Chien, 
July  15, 1830,  the  land  east  of  the  Mississippi  was  ceded  to  the  whites.  The 
chief  Black  Hawk  refused  to  submit  to  the  treaty.  In  1831  he  made  an 
attack  on  some  Illinois  villages,  but  was  driven  off  by  a  force  of  militia 
under  General  Gaines.  The  next  spring  Black  Hawk  returned  with  a  strong 
force  and  renewed  his  attacks.  United  States  troops  were  called  against  him, 
and  upon  his  defeat  on  July  21,  and  on  August  2,  1832,  the  war  was  ended. 
Encydopczdic  Dictionary  of  American  History,  vol.  i,  p.  80. 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE  FRONTIER  LINE    459 

surrectionary  forces  in  Baden  during  the  revolution  of 
184:8-49.  At  the  university  Hecker  had  fought  a  duel 
with  Gustav  Korner;  now  these  men  extended  to  one 
another  the  hand  of  comradeship  in  their  new  home. 

Besides  showing  the  usual  German  qualities  of  indus- 
try and  thrift,  the  Germans  of  St.  Clair  County  were 
interested  and  wide-awake  in  politics.  In  Belleville,  with 
over  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  it  ha]3pened  that  for 
years  no  native  American  sat  in  the  city  council,  and 
that  all  civic  offices  were  filled  by  Germans.  The  county 
officers  likewise  were  generally  German,  and  their  influ- 
ence extended  beyond  the  county  limits.  Eduard  Retz 
was  three  times  state  treasurer,  and  Gustav  Korner  was 
lieutenant-governor  of  Illinois  in  1852.^  Under  Julius 
Raith '  a  German  company  was  recruited  for  the  Mexican 
War,  and  during  the  Civil  War  all  men  capable  of  bear- 
ing arms  fought  for  the  cause  of  the  Union.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  at  present  three  fourths  of  the  population  of 
the  county  are  German  or  of  German  descent.  As  early  as 
1836  a  "  Deutsche  Bibliotheks-Gesellschaft "  was  formed 
in  Belleville,  which  founded  a  library  that  in  1879  con- 
tained fifty-five  hundred  volumes,  exclusive  of  public 
documents  presented  by  Congress.  For  that  time  and  in 
that  section  this  fact  may  be  recorded  as  noteworthy. 
The  appellative  "  Latin  settlement "  or  "  Latin  farmers  " 
was  probably  first  used  in  connection  with  the  cultivated 
settlers  of  Belleville.^ 

*   In  1862-1865  lie  was  minister  to  Spain. 

2  Julius  C.  Raith  (b.  1820  in  Wiirtemberg)  served  as  captain  in  the 
Mexican  War  and  in  the  Rebellion  as  colonel  of  the  Forty-Third  Illinois 
Regiment.  He  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Shiloh  (1862).  Cf.  Rosengarten, 
The  German  Soldier  in  the  Wars  of  the  United  States,  p.  231. 

3  Cf.  Korner,  Das  deutsche  Element  in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten  von  Nord- 
amerika,  1818-18^8,  p.  265. 


460  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Twenty  or  thirty  miles  east  of  St.  Louis,  in  Madison 
County,  Illinois,  was  founded  a  Swiss  colony  named  High- 
land. The  plateau,  called  the  Looking-Glass  Prairie,  was 
settled  by  the  families  Kopfli  and  Suppiger,  in  October, 
1831.  They  became  the  permanent  owners,  though  Ameri- 
cans had  settled  there  ten  years  before.  Proximity  to  St. 
Louis  was  an  advantage  for  the  disposal  of  their  products. 
Alton,  in  the  same  county,  was  the  most  important  com- 
mercial city  in  the  state,  in  the  early  thirties,  and  inter- 
ested enthusiasts  predicted  that  it  might  sometime  surpass 
St.  Louis.  It  attracted  many  Germans  at  that  time;  in- 
deed all  the  cities  that  rose  up  and  gave  promise  of  a 
great  future  received  a  good  contingent  of  German  immi- 
grants at  the  very  beginning  of  their  hopeful  career. 
Such  were  Vandalia,  Peoria,^  Quincy,^  Springfield,  Peru, 
and  Chicago.  With  the  building  of  railroads  the  country 
opened  more  and  more  toward  the  Northwest,  and  the 
centre  of  population  moved  in  that  direction.  Chicago  in 
1818  had  scarcely  ten  thousand  inhabitants.  The  Germans 
were  there  early  ^  and  grew  in  numbers  and  influence. 
The  "Illinois  Staats-zeitung "  was  started  in  1848  as  a 
weeldy  paper,  while  St.  Louis  already  had  two  German 
dailies  in  the  same  year.  The  years  1850-1854  mark  the 
crest  in  the  wave  of  the  German  immigration  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  before  1880.  The  largest  part  of  the  flood 

1  G.  F.  Miiller  was  the  first  German  settler  in  Peoria  (1836)  ;  he  was  an 
alderman  of  the  city  in  1852. 

2  A  Tunker  named  Georg  Wolf,  a  native  of  the  lower  Rhine,  settled  there 
in  the  summer  of  1822,  a  year  after  the  first  settler,  John  Wood  (later  gov- 
ernor), from  whom  Wolf  bought  his  land.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi, 
p.  222,  etc.  ("  Highland,  Illinois,"  von  A.  E.  Bandelier.)  Cf.  also  :  Geschichte 
der  Deutsclien  Quincys,  von  H.  Bornmann.  Deutsch-Amerikanische  Geschichts- 
blatter,  Erster  Jahrgang. 

3  Mannhardt :  Die  ersten  heglauhigten  Deidschen  in  Chicago,  Deutsch-Ameri- 
kanische Geschichtsbldtter,  Bd.  I,  Heft  1,  pp.  38,  46. 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE  FRONTIER  LINE    461 

poured  into  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Mich- 
igan, and  Iowa.  In  Chicago  the  German  spirit  had  its  first 
awakening  in  1844,  when  a  meeting  was  held  in  opposition 
to  nativistic  influences.  But  these  beginnings  cannot  be 
compared  with  the  political  influence  of  the  Chicago  Ger- 
mans in  the  days  of  Franz  A.  Hoffmann,  merchant  and 
banker,  who,  an  ardent  supporter  of  Lincoln,  became  heu- 
tenant-o'overnor  of  Illinois  in  1860. 

The  settlement  of  the  state  of  Iowa  came  late,  but  was 
very  rapid  when  once  begun.  In  May,  1842,  the  news- 
papers of  St.  Louis  announced  that  during  the  first  three 
months  of  that  year  529  steamers  had  arrived  in  the 
harbor  of  St.  Louis  with  more  than  thirty  thousand  pas- 
sengers destined  for  Iowa.  The  causes  for  this  rapid  fill- 
ing-up  of  the  new  territory  were :  the  good  soil,  the  fine 
climate,  and  the  discovery  of  lead-mines  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Dubuque.'  Along  with  native  Americans,  many 
Germans  were  drawn  from  Missouri  and  Illinois  toward 
pastures  new  in  Iowa  and  Minnesota.  Since  the  avenue  of 
entrance  was  the  MississijDpi  River,  there  were  soon  estab- 
lished on  its  banks  the  cities  Keokuk,  Burlington,  Daven- 
port, and  Dubuque.  Iowa  City  was  built  on  the  Iowa 
River,  Des  Moines  on  the  river  of  the  same  name,  and- on 
the  Missouri  rose  the  town  of  Council  Bluffs.  New  cities 
sprang  up  like  mushrooms  and  new  immigrants  were 
always  at  hand  to  link  their  fortunes  with  new  localities. 
Dubuque,  once  first,  now  second  city  in  size  in  the  state, 
contained  a  population  more  than  one  half  of  German 
blood.  There  were  among  them  Germans,  Swiss,  Alsatians, 
and  Luxemburgers.  In  1880  there  were  two  large  Ger- 

1  The  first  white  man  to  come  to  Dubuque,  after  the  French  fnr  traders 
left,  was,  in  1832,  the  German,  Peter  Weighle,  whose  descendants  still  re- 
side in  Dubuque.  A  year  later  came  the  Swiss,  Nikolaus  Hoffmami.  Eick- 
hoff,  p.  352. 


462  THE   GEKMAN   ELEMENT 

man  Catholic,  one  Lutheran,  one  German  Presbyterian, 
and  three  or  four  small  German  Protestant  congregations. 
Five  of  the  ten  state  councilmen  and  two  or  three  county 
supervisors  were  Germans.  In  state  politics  the  latter  were 
likewise  very  influential,  as  for  example  J.  H.  Thedings 
(b.  in  East  Frisia,  Prussia),  who  was  in  turn  justice  of  the 
peace,  mayor,  president  of  the  county  council,  and  head 
of  the  school  system. 

Northwest  of  Dubuque  there  was  the  German  Catholic 
town  of  New-Wien  (New  Vienna),  and  to  the  west  of  it, 
on  the  Mississippi,  the  town  of  Guttenberg,  founded  by 
Germans  from  Cincinnati.  In  Clayton  County,  on  the  so- 
called  "Potato  Prairie,"  there  was  a  colony  of  communists, 
founded  by  Heinrich  Koch  in  1847,  after  his  return  from 
the  Mexican  War,  in  which  he  had  served  as  captain. 
Another  communistic  society,  the  "Icarians,"  settled  at 
Corning,  Iowa,  after  leaving  Nauvoo.  They  had  first 
bought  the  deserted  properties  of  the  Mormons,  who  were 
driven  out  of  their  Illinois  settlement,  Nauvoo,  in  1850. 
The  Frenchman  Etienne  Cabet  was  their  leader  until  his 
death  in  1856,  and  their  removal  to  Adams  County,  Iowa. 
They  called  their  new  settlement,  at  Corning,  the  Icaria 
Commune  in  reminiscence  of  Cabet's  book  "Icarie."  Al- 
though most  of  the  members  were  French,  the  most  in- 
fluential of  them  after  Cabet's  death  were  Germans. 

The  three  leading  cities,  Des  Moines,  the  capital  of  the 
state,  Dubuque,  and  Davenport,  the  city  third  in  size,  re- 
ceived large  German  populations,  Davenport  getting  a 
large  contribution  from  Schleswig-Holstein  and  Denmark. 
From  Davenport  as  a  centre  grew  a  number  of  German 
colonies;  such  as,  Avoca,  Minden,  Walcott,  Wheatland, 
Dewitt,  etc.^ 

1  Cf.  Eickhoff,  p.  355. 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE   FRONTIER  LINE    463 

The  northern  and  western  parts  of  Michigan  long  re- 
mained untouched  by  the  American  pioneers,  because  of 
the  cold  climate  and  the  presence  of  hostile  Indian  tribes. 
The  German  blood  is  nevertheless  represented  in  the  early- 
history  of  Michigan,  through  the  distinguished  service  of 
Friedrich  Baraga,  the  Indian  missionary.  He  was  born  in 
Carniola,  Austria,  in  1797.  His  mother  was  an  aunt  of 
the  noted  German  poet  Auersperg  (whose  pseudonym 
was  Anastasius  Griin).  Of  noble  birth  and  with  every 
advantage  of  social  influence  and  education  (he  studied 
jurisprudence  at  the  University  of  Vienna),  Baraga  en- 
tered the  priesthood,  contrary  to  the  counsels  of  relatives. 
In  1830  he  decided  to  enter  the  missionary  service  among 
the  American  Indians.  Stopping  long  enough  in  Cincin- 
nati to  learn  the  language  of  the  Ottawas  from  an  Indian 
in  a  Catholic  school  of  that  city,  he  traveled  by  way  of 
Detroit  to  the  northern  part  of  the  Michigan  peninsula, 
and  established  himself  at  Arbre  Crochu.  There  he 
taught  the  Indians  of  the  Lake  Superior  region  (includ- 
ing the  Ottawas,  Pottawottomies,  Chippewas,  or  Ojibwas) 
how  to  read,  write,  and  count,  and  also  the  simple  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity.  He  would  not  use  the  books  of  the 
French  in  the  Algonquin  language,  but  prepared  his  own 
text-books  and  catechisms  in  the  Chippewa  language, 
with  materials  from  the  Old  and  New  Testaments;  he 
wrote  a  grammar  of  the  Chippewa  dialect,  and  compiled 
a  reader  in  the  Ottawa  language.  In  1853  Baraga  was 
made  bishop  of  the  Northern  Indian  Missions,  his  resi- 
dence being  Sault  Sainte-Marie,  and  later  Marquette,  on 
Lake  Superior.  He  died  at  Marquette  in  1868.^ 

If  we  look  again  at  the  census  maps,  we  find  that,  with 

*  A  sketch  of  his  life  can  be  found  in  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  pp.  291— 
295.  ("  Ein  Vorkampfer  der  Civilisation.") 


/ 


464  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

the  exception  of  the  district  around  Detroit,  Michigan 
was  practically  uninhabited  when  the  census  of  1830  was 
taken.  In  1840  the  region  to  the  north  of  Detroit  and  the 
area  extending  westward  to  Lake  Michigan  were  settled, 
though  not  densely.  There  are  proofs  that  the  Germans 
had  come  during  the  interval.  In  1839  the  Catholic  priest 
and  missionary  Dr.  Hammer  wrote  concerning  the  Ger- 
mans as  follows :  ^ 

Real  German  life  as  it  Is  found  in  many  American  states,  one 
/  can  find  in  Michigan  only  in  three  places,  for  in  all  other  places 
our  people  [meaning  the  Germans]  are  too  scattered  to  form 
congregations  that  might  support  a  German  preacher :  (1)  In 
Detroit,  there  are  two  large  German  congregations,  the  stronger 
being  Catholic  and  having  built  a  cathedral,  the  other,  also  hav- 
ing a  church  of  its  own,  being  Protestant  (the  Reverend  Mr. 
Schade).  The  members  of  the  two  congregations  live  in  har- 
mony with  one  another,  and  never  allow  their  religious  differ- 
ences to  Interfere  with  their  social  intercourse.  At  marriages 
and  baptisms  they  are  never  concerned  about  which  preacher 
they  should  choose,  but  that  they  should  have  a  good  time  in 
the  German  fashion.  A  large  number  of  the  Germans  remain 
in  the  city  only  so  long  as  to  earn  money  enough  to  buy  land 
outside  and  establish  farms.  (2)  The  second  German  colony, 
and  the  most  prosperous,  is  that  near  Ann  Arbor.  The  Germans 
there  come  largely  from  Wiirtemberg,  and  are  under  the  Pro- 
testant preacher,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Schmid.  Their  grain  and 
cattle  are  unsurpassed  in  Michigan.  (3)  The  third  German 
colony  is  that  on  the  Grand  River,  In  the  neighborhood  of 
Lyons,  Ionia  County,  under  the  Reverend  Mr.  Kopp,  from 
Westphalia.  The  colony  is  called  Westphalia. 

The  German  traveler,  J.  G.  Kohl  (in  1855),  adds  a  few 
more  facts  about  the  Ann  Arbor  Germans. 

The  first  were  some  few  who  came  from  the  villages  near 
Stuttgart  about  1830.  It  was  just  the  time  when  Michigan  was 

I  Eickhoff,  pp.  376-377. 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE  FRONTIER  LINE    465 

lauded  to  the  skies,  just  as  twelve  years  later  everybody  talked 
about  Illinois  and  Indiana,  and  after  another  twelve  years,  it 
was  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota.  The  early  settlers  helped 
to  build  the  city  of  Ann  Arbor,  and  wrote  home  about  their 
prosperity.  The  word  was  passed  from  village  to  village  ;  first  a 
dozen  men,  then  a  dozen  families,  crossed  the  ocean  until  about  five 
to  six  thousand  Swabians  had  settled  around  Ann  Arbor  (1855). 
The  native  speculators  bought  up  the  land  near  the  prosperous 
settlers,  but  the  increased  price  of  land  did  not  stop  the  pur- 
chasers ;  for  the  Swabians  kept  on  extending  their  farms,  De- 
troit's German  newspaper,  already  in  existence  toward  the  end 
of  the  forties,  did  not  prosper  greatly  until  the  large  German 
immigration  of  the  fifties  was  added  to  the  Michigan  popula- 
tion. 

An  interesting  episode  in  the  westward  movement  of 
the  German  element  was  the  settlement  of  Waterloo 
County,  in  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada.  Waterloo 
was  settled  by  German  Mennonites  from  Pennsylvania, 
beginning  in  the  year  1800,  and  became  the  earliest  settled 
inland  township  in  the  western  peninsula  of  the  Province 
of  Ontario.^  The  pioneers  were  Joseph  Sherk  (Schorg)  and 
Samuel  Betzner,  who  left  Franklin  County,  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  autumn  of  the  year  1799,  and  spent  the  winter  in 
the  Niagara  Peninsula.  The  following  spring  they  went 
in  search  of  a  better  location,  and  penetrated  the  woods 

1  Cf.  The  Biographical  History  of  Waterloo  Township  and  other  Town- 
ships of  the  County,  being  a  history  of  the  early  settlers  and  their  descendants, 
mostly  all  of  Pennsylvania- Dutch  origin.  By  Ezra  E.  Eby.  (Berlin,  Ontario, 
1895.)  Also,  The  Consolidated  By-Laius  of  the  Township  of  Waterloo  up  to 
the  year  1888,  to  which  is  appended  an  historical  sketch  of  the  early  settlement 
and  subsequent  development,  etc.  By  Alex.  Shoemaker.  (Gait,  Ontario,  1888.) 
The  Romance  of  Ontario,  or  the  Peopling  of  the  Province.  By  C.  C.  James, 
M.A.  Appendix  to  the  report  of  the  Ontario  Bureau  of  Industries,  1897. 
(Toronto,  1899.)  The  Ethnographical  Elements  of  Ontario.  By  A,  F.  Hunter. 
(Ontario  Historical  Society.)  For  the  books  and  materials  above-named  I 
am  indebted  to  Professor  G.  H.  Needier,  University  College,  Toronto,  On- 
tario, who  has  carefully  investigated  the  subject  of  the  Germans  in  Canada. 


466  THE   GEEMAN  ELEMENT 

about  thirty  miles  beyond  the  limits  of  human  habitation, 
having  heard  vaguely  of  "  a  fine  river  traversing  that  re- 
gion." Only  a  few  traders  had  entered  these  forests,  and 
but  one,  named  Dodge,  remained  as  a  "  permanent  and 
prominent  landmark  of  the  community."  Sherk  and  Betz- 
ner,  having  satisfied  themselves  as  to  the  quality  of  the 
land,  bought  from  Richard  Beasley  a  tract  of  land  on  the 
Grand  River,  and  at  once  brought  their  families  there. 
Later  in  the  same  year  a  second  party  of  Mennonites, 
from  Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania,  settled  on  the 
Grand  River,  coming  in  their  large  four-horse  wagons 
filled  with  farm  implements  and  household  effects.  Reich- 
ert,  Gingerich,  Bechtel,  Rosenberger,  Bricker,  Kinsey 
(Kinzie),  Biehn  (Bien,  then  Bean),  Clemens,  were  the 
names  of  some  of  the  earliest  German  settlers.  They 
brought  their  families  and  possessions,  including  many 
horses  and  small  droves  of  cattle.  The  journey  from  Penn- 
sylvania, about  five  hundred  miles,  was  made  with  cov- 
ered wagons,'  and  lasted  about  ten  weeks.  The  greatest 
obstruction  was  found  at  Beverly  Swamp,  just  before 
reaching  Waterloo,  and  teams  would  lie  for  two  weeks 
at  Horning' s  (the  last  settlement),  until  the  men  had 
made  the  road  through  the  swamp  passable.  The  Penn- 
sylvania German  pioneer,  George  Clemens,  drove  the  first 
team  that  ever  went  through  Beverly  Swamp. 

It  was  found  after  the  country  had  received  quite  a 
number  of  German  settlers  (1804),  that  all  of  their  land, 
sold  to  them  by  Richard  Beasley,  was  incumbered  by  a 
large  mortgage,  of  $20,000,  duly  recorded.  Fearing  to  be 
dispossessed  at  a  future  time,  they  sought  aid  of  their 
brethren  in  Pennsylvania,  and,  after  some  vain  attempts, 
succeeded  in  getting  the  Mennonites  of  Lancaster  County, 

*  Described  as  Conestoga  wagons  in  a  previous  chapter  (v),  pp.  135-136. 


THE   ADVANCE   OF  THE   FKONTIER  LINE    467 

Pennsylvania,  to  form  a  company  and  take  up  the  mort- 
gage. This  was  accomphshed  mainly  through  the  per- 
suasive powers  of  Samuel  Bricker,  who  also  performed 
the  feat  of  carrying  the  coin,  $20,000  in  silver  dollars,  in 
a  light  conveyance  ("  leicht  plasier  weggli ")  safely  from 
Lancaster  to  Niagara,  where  on  June  29,  1805,^  sixty 
thousand  acres  of  land  were  duly  conveyed  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Mennonites  for  £10,000  Canadian  cur- 
rency. The  immigration  from  Pennsylvania  ceased  during 
the  years  of  the  war  with  England,  but  after  1815  Ger- 
man settlers  came  again  into  Waterloo  and  neighboring 
townships,  not  alone  Mennonites,  but  Lutherans,  Re- 
formed, and  Catholics  in  quite  as  large  numbers.  As 
everywhere  else  the  German  settlers  bought  the  best  land 
only,  and  established  a  reputation  for  model  farming. 
They  were  very  successful  also  as  manufacturers,  the 
towns  of  Berlin,  Waterloo,  Preston,  Hespeler,  in  Water- 
loo County,  and  Hanover,  Neustadt,  and  Ayton,  in  Grey 
County,  becoming  thriving  German  manufacturing  towns. 
In  1846  the  town  of  Berlin  had  four  hundred  inhabit- 
ants ;  in  1908,  twelve  thousand ;  its  wealth  is  self-made, 
as  that  of  the  farms.  The  furniture  manufacturing  in- 
dustry in  Canada  is  very  largely  in  the  hands  of  Ger- 
mans.^ But  the  limits  of  this  work  will  not  admit  of  a 
consideration  in  detail  of  the  Germans  beyond  the  borders 
of  the  United  States. 

"  History  of  Waterloo,  pp.  30  ff.  The  Mennonites  of  Waterloo  County 
were  not  United  Empire  Loyalists  ;  their  migration  was  undertaken  in  search 
for  good  land  for  settlement.  Their  brethren  in  Pennsylvania  hesitated  to 
support  them  because  they  were  in  a  country  belonging  to  the  British  crown. 

2  H.  H.  Miller,  M.P.,  "  The  Germans  in  Canada,"  Busy  Man's  Magazine, 
July,  1908,  pp.  17-31. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    WINNING    OF    THE    WEST 
IV.  THE  NORTHWEST,  THE  SOUTHWEST,  AND  THE  FAR  WEST 

(A)  The  Northwest  opened  by  the  Black  Hawk  War,  1832  — First  German 
settlers  in  Wisconsin  —  Milwaukee  as  a  distributing-centre  —  "Deutsch- 
Athen  "  —  The  causes  for  Wisconsin  receiving  so  large  a  share  of  German 
immigration  :  the  plan  of  a  German  state  ;  favorable  soil ;  climate  ; 
reports  and  literature  ;  sale  of  school  lands  ;  commissioners  of  immi- 
gration—  Distribution  of  Germans  in  Wisconsin  —  Minnesota's  first  Ger- 
man settlers  from  the  Red  River  district  —  Founding  of  New  Ulm: — 
Indian  troubles  —  The  attack  on  New  Ulm  by  the  Sioux. 

(B)  The  Southwest  —  The  earliest  settlers  in  Texas  —  The  "  Adelsverein  " 
and  its  plans  of  colonization  —  New  Braunfels  and  Friedrichsburg  — 
Wreck  of  the  "  Adelsverein  "  —  Stability  of  German  colonies  in  Texas  — 
The  agricultural  area  :  Seguin,  New  Braunfels,  San  Antonio  — Germans 
prominent  in  Texas  :  Congressmen  Schleicher  and  Degener. 

(C)  The  Far  West  —  German  Mennonites  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska  —  The 
Pacific  Coast :  Oregon  Germans  — H.  L.  Yesler,  founder  of  Seattle,  Wash- 
ington —  John  Sutter,  pioneer  of  California  ;  his  career  ;  gold  first  dis- 
covered on  his  estate  ;  cause  of  his  misfortunes  —  The  Germans  of 
California  —  Sutro  and  Spreckels  of  San  Francisco. 

(^)   The  Northwest  —  Wisconsin 

The  military  expeditions  incident  to  the  Black  Hawk 
War  in  1832  opened  the  state  of  Wisconsin  for  settle- 
ment. The  mineral  wealth,  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and 
the  good  climate  became  known  for  the  first  time  through 
the  militia  who  took  part  in  these  expeditions.  The  good 
reports  spread  eastward  and  across  the  ocean.  In  1830 
the  population  of  Wisconsin  was  3635,  and  the  inhabited 
region  belonged  to  the  territory  of  Michigan  till  1836. 
Soon  the  population  of  the  new  area  increased  by  leaps 


IN  THE  NORTHWEST  469 

and  bounds :  in  1840  Wisconsin  had  30,945  inhabitants ; 
in  1850,  305,391 ;  in  1860,  775,881.  Every  ten  years 
thereafter  showed  an  increase  of  about  300,000,  until  at 
the  census  of  1900  the  population  numbered  2,069,042. 
The  same  census  states  that  709,969  of  the  inhabitants 
are  of  German  blood,  i.  e.,  either  born  in  Germany  or 
having  one  or  both  parents  born  in  Germany/  In  this 
wonderful  increase  of  population  the  German  immigration 
contributed  a  larger  share  than  any  other  stock.  The 
periods  of  their  greatest  immigration  were  the  decades 
1840-50,  1850-60,  1880-90.  More  exactly,  the  periods 
were  1846-54  and  1881-84,  corresponding  to  the  years 
of  the  largest  German  immigration  to  the  United  States. 
During  these  two  periods  Wisconsin  probably  received  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  Germans  than  any  other  state.^ 
In  1900  the  population  of  German  blood  numbered  34.3 
per  cent  of  the  entire  population  of  Wisconsin,  very  close 
to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  total  population  of  foreign  parent- 
age, the  latter  numbering  71.1  per  cent  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  state. 

Though  it  is  not  definitely  known  when  the  first  Ger- 
mans settled  in  Wisconsin,  it  must  have  been  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  thirties.  Among  the  pioneer  stations  of 
Green  County,  there  was  the  "  Funk  "  blockhouse,  which 
existed  in  the  year  1832.^  At  the  same  time  a  man  by  the 

1  Cf.  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i  (Population,  part  i),  pp. 
812,  820,  828. 

^  Cf .  Everest-Levi, "  How  Wisconsin  came  by  its  large  German  Element," 
Collections  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wiscofisin,  vol.  xii,  pp.  299-334. 
For  the  history  of  the  Germans  in  Wisconsin  see  also,  Wisconsins  Deutsch- 
Amerikaner  bis  zum  Schlusz  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts,  vol.  i,  by  Wilhelra 
Hense-Jensen  ;  vol.  ii,  by  Hense-Jensen  and  Ernest  Bruncken.  Cf.  also 
Eickhoff,  In  der  neuen  Heimat  (chapter  contributed  by  P.  V.  Deuster),  pp. 
365-375. 

^  Annual  Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  vol.  vi,  p.  411.  Funk 


470  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

name  of  Westpliall  was  living  in  the  northern  part  of 
Calumet  County.  The  first  German  to  settle  in  Milwaukee 
County  was  Wilhelm  Strothmann,  in  1835/  The  German 
immigration  began  properly  in  1840,  when  in  the  summer 
months  there  arrived  in  Milwaukee  two  to  three  hundred 
Germans  every  week.  Milwaukee  was  at  first  the  point  of 
attraction,  and  subsequently  became  the  great  distribut- 
ing-centre for  the  German  immigration.  A  large  increase 
came  in  1843-44,  when  from  a  thousand  to  fourteen  hun- 
dred Germans  arrived  every  week  during  the  summer 
season.  They  no  longer  remained  in  Milwaukee  in  such 
large  numbers,  but  penetrated  into  the  interior  of  the 
state.  The  flood  of  immigration  brought  along  a  number 
of  prominent  individuals,  such  as  F.  W.  Horn,  who  in 
1848  was  a  member  of  the  first  legislature  of  the  new- 
born state,  and  in  1851  was  Speaker  of  the  House  (As- 
sembly). He  was  a  member  of  the  legislature  as  late  as 
1882.  Dr.  Franz  Hiibschmann,  a  graduate  in  medicine  of 
the  University  of  Jena,  was  one  of  the  delegates  to  the 
convention  in  1846  which  framed  the  constitution  of 
the  prospective  state  of  Wisconsin.  Two  other  Germans, 
Janssen  and  Kern,  both  of  Washington  County,  were  also 
members  of  this  constitutional  convention.  In  1844  Mor- 
itz  Schoffler,  the  printer,  founded  the  first  German  weekly 
(later  a  daily  paper),  "  The  Wisconsin  Banner  " ;  Schoffler 
was  a  member  of  the  second  convention  for  the  drafting 
of  the  constitution,  in  1847.  As  early  as  1843  the  Ger- 

is  also  mentioned  with  a  family  of  seven  in  the  first  territorial  census  of 
Wisconsin.  Cf.  Ibid.,  vol.  xiii,  p.  260. 

^  A  number  of  other  Germans  came  in  the  same  year  :  Andreas  Eble, 
Wilhelm  Baunigiirtner,  N.  Esling,  Walter  Shattuck,  Alfred  Orendorf,  Ed- 
ward Wiesner.  In  1836  there  came  George  Hahn,  Louis  Treyser,  George 
Abert,  F.  and  H.  Harmeyer,  Henry  Bleyer  ;  in  1837,  Mathias  Stein,  C.  W- 
Schwartzbnrg,  David  Knab.  Cf.  Eickhoff,  p.  365. 


IN   THE   NORTHWEST  471 

mans  united  in  a  demonstration  connected  with  a  public 
festival  in  Milwaukee/  They  soon  found  it  necessary  to 
unite  against  "  Knownothingism,"  which  as  it  spread  over 
the  country  also  entered  Wisconsin. 

The  foundation  of  a  bishopric"  at  Milwaukee  by  the 
Catholic  Church  aided  immigration  to  the  new  state, 
particularly  from  South  Germany.  John  Martin  Henni,  a 
native  of  Switzerland,  was  appointed  the  first  bishop  of 
Milwaukee.  An  Austrian  priest.  Dr.  Salzmann,  founded 
the  Catholic  seminary  of  St.  Francis  near  the  same  city, 
and  subsequently  a  teachers'  seminary  was  added,  which 
furnished  German  teachers  for  various  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. The  influence  of  the  German  Catholics  was  exhibited 
in  the  choice  of  a  successor  to  Archbishop  Henni.  This 
successor,  Michael  Heisz,  was  also  chosen  from  the  Ger- 
man element,  and  two  other  German  bishops  were  ap- 
pointed for  Wisconsin.  The  Lutheran  congregations  were 
likewise  numerous  and  vigorous,  and  under  the  influence 
of  their  pastors,^  churches  were  built  that  became  centres 
of  moral  and  educational  influence.  The  Protestants 
erected  two  colleges  in  Wisconsin,  Northwestern  Univers- 
ity at  Watertown  and  the  Concordia  Gymnasium  at 
Milwaukee,  both  still  existing  as  denominational  institu- 
tions. A  school  which  performed  continuous  and  excellent 
service,  not  confined  to  the  German  population,  was  the 
Deutsch-Englische    Akademie,^   founded    in    1851.    The 

'  On  the  occasion  of  the  movement  to  improve  the  harbor  of  Milwaukee. 

'  This  was  subsequently  made  an  archbishopric,  when  the  population  grew 
larger.  Henni  was  the  first  archbishop. 

5  Among  the  earliest  there  were  the  Reverends  Krause,  Kindermann,  Dul- 
itz,  Streiszguth,  Lochner.  Very  noteworthy  was  the  so-called  "  Miihlhauser 
Kirche  "  (Gnaden-Kirche),  popularly  named  after  the  first  pastor,  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Miihlhauser,  a  man  noted  for  his  charity  and  devotion.  Cf .  Eickhoff,  p.  368. 

*  This  school  will  be  mentioned  again  in  Volume  II,  Chapter  V,  "  German 
Influence  on  Education  in  the  United  States." 


472  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

most  noted  teacher  of  this  school  at  the  early  period  was 
Peter  Engelmann,  who  taught  for  the  love  of  it  and  im- 
pressed his  character  on  several  generations  of  pupils. 

The  Germans  of  Milwaukee  introduced  their  social  life 
into  the  new  state,  e.  g.,  their  "  Turnvereine  "  and  their 
"  Gesangvereine."  The  first  German  singing-society  be- 
gan in  1847  with  sixteen  members,  and  the  famous  Mil- 
waukee "  Musikverein  "  was  founded  May  1,  1850/  The 
first  musical  director  was  Hans  Balatka,  a  German  Bohe- 
mian, the  real  founder  of  the  society.  In  the  winter  of 
1849-50,  a  dramatic  performance  was  attempted  by  an 
association  of  amateurs,  and  a  theatre  was  established  in 
1852  by  Joseph  and  Heinrich  Kurz.  The  tradition  was 
begun  of  having  a  permanent  German  theatre  in  Mil- 
waukee, and  even  at  the  present  day  few  other  cities  have 
given  the  German  drama  such  kindly  shelter.^  In  1852 
the  first  "  Turn verein  "  in  Milwaukee  was  established  by 
Edward  Schultz,  a  political  refugee  from  Baden.  The 
years  1853-54  were  considered  the  ^'flowering-time"  of 
Milwaukee's  musical  and  literary  activities,  and  from  that 
period  dates  the  name :  "  Deutsch-Athen "  (German 
Athens).  The  hyperbole  is  excusable  when  we  compare 
the  good  musical  and  literary  attainments  of  Milwaukee 
with  the  low  plane  of  culture  existing  at  the  time  in  most 
American  cities,  whether  in  the  East  or  in  the  West.  The 
accounts  of  cultivated  European  travelers  furnish  abund- 
ant evidence  of  the  deplorable  absence  of  literary  and 
musical  aspirations. 

Among   the  early  influential  Germans  in  Wisconsin, 

1  In  honor  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  celebration  of  this  musical  associa- 
tion, a  volume  containing  its  history  was  published,  entitled,  Der  Musikver- 
ein von  Milwaukee,  1850-1900 :  Eine  Chronik.  (Milwaukee,  1900.) 

2  See  Volume  II,  Chapter  vn. 


IN  THE  NORTHWEST  473 

there  were  the  orator  and  poet,  A.  H.  Bielefeld,  and  the 
teacher  and  advocate,  Eduard  Salomon.  The  latter  was 
elected  lieutenant-governor  of  Wisconsin  in  1862,  and 
when  Governor  Harvey  died  in  office,  Salomon  became  war- 
governor,  a  great  distinction  for  the  first  German  governor 
of  the  state.  As  journalists,  teachers,  and  physicians  many 
Germans  became  prominent,  but  even  more  important  for 
the  development  of  the  state  was  the  share  of  the  German 
element  in  commerce  and  industrial  enterprises.  Some  of 
their  establishments  became  famous  all  over  the  United 
States.  Their  breweries,  tanneries,  tobacco  storehouses, 
banks,  hotels,  their  trade  in  iron,  lumber,  and  drugs, 
built  up  the  wealth  of  Milwaukee,  and  gave  the  state  a  com- 
manding position  in  the  commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Northwest. 

There  were  several  causes  for  Wisconsin's  receiving  so 
large  a  German  population.  In  the  first  place  there  was 
an  effort  made,  as  in  the  case  of  Missouri  and  Texas,  to 
individualize  Wisconsin  as  a  German  state.  The  plan  to 
found  a  German  state  in  the  Wisconsin  territory  failed 
as  it  had  elsewhere,  but  as  in  the  other  cases  the  result 
was  favorable  for  the  state  selected,  the  latter  being 
thereby  rapidly  supplied  with  a  desirable  and  abundant 
population.  We  observed  above  the  foundation  of  the 
"  Giessener  Gesellschaft "  in  1833,  and  the  large  conse- 
quent immigration  entering  Missouri.  In  1835  a  society 
called  "Germania"  was  formed  on  this  side  of  the  ocean, 
with  the  purpose  of  maintaining  German  customs,  speech, 
and  traditions  against  all  destructive  influences,  and 
assisting  German  refugees  and  immigrants  arriving  in  the 
United  States.*  After  a  rebuff  met  by  their  memorial  to 
Congress,  asking  that  land  be  set  aside  on  easy  terms  for 

1  Cf.  Gustav  Korner,  Das  deutsche  Element  in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten  von 


474  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

German  *  fugitives,  their  next  plan  was  to  direct  German 
immigration  to  specific  areas,  of  which  they  might  gain 
control  through  their  numbers,  so  as  to  make  of  them 
German  states.  The  promoters  could  not  agree  on  the 
region  to  be  settled ;  Texas  and  Oregon  were  desired  by 
some,  while  the  majority  favored  the  Northwest  Territory, 
between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Great  Lakes.  The  society 
did  not  have  a  long  life.  A  similar  movement  took  place 
in  1836,  started  in  Philadelphia  by  the  German- American 
Settlement  Society,^  the  final  result  of  which  was  the 
founding  of  the  town  of  Hermann,  in  Gasconade  County, 
Missouri.  Franz  Loher,  perhaps  the  first  German  traveler 
and  man  of  letters  who  felt  sincerely  interested  in  the 
German-American  population  of  the  United  States,  and 
who  wrote  the  so-called  "  romantic  history  "  of  the  Ger- 
mans in  America,^  advocated  as  the  best  place  for  Ger- 
man settlers  the  territory  between  the  waters  of  the  Ohio 
and  Missouri,  and  thence  to  the  northwest.  The  Irish,  he 
argued,  remained  in  the  East  or  in  the  cities,  whereas  the 
native  Americans  were  scattered  through  the  Far  West. 
That  left  the  centre  and  northwest,  the  real  pick  of  the 
territory,  to  the  German  immigration.  He  favored  concen- 
tration, and  spoke  in  favor  of  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  for 

Nordameriha,  ISIS-IS^S,  p.  108.  (Cincinnati,  1880.)  Cf.  also  Liiher,  Ge- 
scMchfe  und  Zustdnde  der  Deutschen  in  Amerika,  pp.  281-282.  (1847.) 

*  There  had  been  a  precedent.  June  30,  1834,  thirty-six  sections  of  pub- 
lic land,  in  Illinois  or  Michigan,  had  been  granted  to  235  Polish  refugees 
by  Act  of  Congress. 

^  The  "Deutsche  Ansiedlungs-Gesellschaft,"  in  which  J.  G.  Wesselhoeft, 
editor  of  the  Alte  und  neue  Welt,  and  many  others  were  interested.  Cf.  the 
work  already  referred  to  :  W.  G.  Bek,  The  German- American  Settlement  So- 
ciety of  Philadelphia  and  its  Colony,  Hermann,  Missouri.  (Americana  Ger- 
manica  Press,  Philadelphia,  1907.) 

^  The  book  already  referred  to  :  Franz  Loher,  Geschichte  und  Zustdnde 
in  Amerika.  (2te  Ansgabe,  Gottingen,  1855.)  Cf.  pp.  501-505  :  Lander  fiir 
deutsche  Staatenbildung  ;  and  pp.  280-285  :  Staatenplane. 


IN  THE   NORTHWEST  475 

German  settlement,  and  if  elsewhere,  Texas.  The  same 
general  plan  is  advocated  in  numerous  other  works.' 

An  influence  still  stronger  were  the  favorable  reports 
sent  home  by  immigrants  who  were  well  pleased  with 
their  location  in  Wisconsin.  "Nothing  succeeds  like  suc- 
cess" is  an  adage  nowhere  more  applicable  than  to  immi- 
grations. The  climate  of  Wisconsin  was  such  as  to  en- 
courage them.  Though  the  winters  were  cold,  the  air  was 
dry,  and  fevers  incident  to  new  settlements  were  not  so 
frequent  as  elsewhere.  The  climate  and  soil  closely  re- 
sembled what  the  Germans  had  left  at  home.  The  products 
of  the  soil  were  the  same  as  they  had  raised  in  Germany 
for  generations,  —  wheat,  rye,  oats,  and  garden  vegetables. 
Moreover  there  was  no  competition  with  slave  labor,  and, 
after  the  period  of  slavery,  with  free  negro  labor,  felt  to 
be  degrading  by  the  self-respecting  German,  who  had 
been  attracted  by  the  reports  he  had  heard  of  the  dignity 
of  labor  in  America. 

Several  other  well-marked  causes  united  in  brinsrina" 
Wisconsin  so  large  a  foreign  and  particularly  a  German 
population.  In  the  first  place,  Wisconsin,  when  admitted 
to  statehood  in  1848,  was  unincumbered  by  public  debts 
arising  from  internal  improvements  on  a  large  scale.^  No 
burdens  of  taxation,  therefore,  were  to  be  feared  by  the 
immigrant.   In  the  second  place,  the  constitution  adopted 

^  Cf.  A.  E.  Hasse's  book,  published  in  Grimma,  1841,  in  which  he  directly 
counsels  the  Germans  to  settle  in  \Yisconsin,  basing  his  advice  on  his  "own 
observations  and  experience."  Cf.  also  Everest-Levi,  Hoiv  Wisconsin  came 
hy  its  Large  German  Element,  pp.  303-312.  Cf.  Theodor  Wettstein,  Berichte 
aus  Wisconsin.  (Elberfeld,  1850.)  The  author  regards  the  state  as  best 
suited  for  Germans  because  of  its  natural  advantages  of  soil  and  climate. 

2  The  ^filfL•aukee  Courier,  quoting  the  Mohawk  Courier  (N.  Y.),  says,  Au- 
gust 31,  1842,  "Immigration  now  turns  to  Wisconsin,  Missouri,  and  Iowa, 
for  Michigan,  Illinois,  and  Indiana  have  public  debts."  Everest-Levi,  p.  314. 
(Reprint,  p.  18.) 


476  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

by  the  state  was  very  liberal  toward  foreigners.  To  secure 
the  rio'ht  of  voting,  only  one  year  of  residence  was  re- 
quired. This  unusual  privilege  ^  was  the  result,  to  be  sure, 
of  a  struggle,  one  in  which  two  Germans  had  been  very 
influential.  These  two  were  Dr.  Franz  Hilbschmann,  the 
representative  of  the  Germans  in  the  first  convention  of 
1846,  and  Moritz  Schoffler,  their  able  spokesman  in  the 
second  convention  of  1847-48.^ 

Another  feature  favorable  to  the  immigration  was  Wis- 
consin's liberal  land  policy.  The  land  granted  her  by  the 
government  for  the  maintenance  of  schools  was  sold  at 
low  prices  and  without  delay  to  the  immigrants.  Alto- 
gether the  state  received  nearly  four  million  acres  of  land  ^ 
for  the  benefit  of  schools  and  the  University,  and  the 
greater  part  of  these  lands  were  offered  for  sale  at  the 
minimum  government  price  of  $1.25  per  acre.  Some  sec- 
tions in  remote  regions  sold  for  less,  others  were  appraised 
higher,  but  excellent  pieces  of  land  were  even  sold  on 
credit.  Naturally  the  hberality  of  this  system  bore  fruit, 

1  Wisconsin  was  the  only  state  possessing  so  liberal  a  franchise  in  1848  ; 
in  1851  Indiana  put  a  similar  clause  into  her  constitution  ;  Minnesota  in 
1857.  Other  states  followed  in  ten  or  fifteen  years.  Everest-Levi,  supra. 
(Reprint,  p.  18.) 

2  Dr.  Franz  Hilbschmann  was  a  native  of  Weimar,  who  settled  in  Mil- 
waukee as  a  physician  in  1842.  He  was  interested  in  all  public  affairs  of  the 
city  and  state,  became  instrumental  in  getting  the  appropriation  for  the 
harbor  of  Milwaukee,  was  leader  in  all  political,  social,  and  musical  activities 
of  the  German  element,  and  brought  to  the  city  other  men  of  talent,  such  as 
the  journalist,  Moritz  Schoffler.  Hiibschmann's  speech  on  the  franchise  was 
published  in  the  Wisconsin  Banner,  November  7, 1846.  Under  the  editorship 
of  Schoffler,  the  Wisconsin  Banner  became  the  leading  organ  in  the  move- 
ment for  the  liberal  franchise  for  foreigners.  The  Germans  were  joined  in 
their  efforts  by  the  Irish  element.  In  the  earlier  years  of  the  struggle,  1843- 
44,  the  Germans,  K.  J.  Kern,  H.  Hartel,  F.  A.  Liining,  were  also  influential. 
Cf.  R.  A.  Kosz,  Milwaukee  (Milwaukee,  1871),  pp.  231,  258  ;  Hense- Jensen, 
Wisconsins  Deutsch-Amerikaner,  vol.  i,  pp.  103-109. 

'  Everest-Levi,  supra,  pp.  321-322.  (Reprint,  p.  25.) 


IN  THE  NORTHWEST  477 

for  even  the  poorest  immigrant,  after  some  years  of  honest 
toil,  was  enabled  to  meet  the  financial  obligations  thus 
assumed. 

Still  another  circumstance  favoring  the  Germans  was 
the  appointment  by  the  state  of  a  commissioner  of  immi- 
gration. The  law  passed  in  1852  required  the  commis- 
sioner to  reside  in  New  York  City  throughout  the  year 
and  to  o"ive  immigrants  information  favorable  to  Wiscon- 
sin. The  first  appointee,  G.  Van  Steenwyk,  was  followed 
in  1853  by  Hermann  Hartel.  Both  men  distributed  pam- 
phlets, and  advertised  in  German  newspapers  in  the  East 
and  in  Europe.  Leipzig,  Kassel,  Nuremberg,  Basel,  Bre- 
men, and  other  places  in  Germany  were  made  acquainted 
with  the  advantages  of  Wisconsin's  soil  and  climate. 
Hartel  reported  that  within  eight  months  he  had  answered 
three  hundred  and  seventeen  letters  from  Europe,  and 
that,  of  the  three  thousand  people  who  had  visited  his 
New  York  office,  two  thirds  were  Germans.  Often  money 
was  sent  to  him  from  settlers  in  Wisconsin  to  assist  their 
relatives  on  arrival  at  New  York.  The  American  consul 
at  Bremen,  Dr.  Hildebrandt  (a  German  of  Mineral  Point, 
Wisconsin),  gave  valuable  assistance  in  circulating  infor- 
mation. Nearly  thirty  thousand  pamphlets  were  distrib- 
uted, ,one  half  of  them  in  Europe.  The  third  commissioner, 
F.  W.  Horn  (of  Ozaukee  County,  Wisconsni),  appomted 
in  1854,  used  similar  means  of  advertising,  and  of  direct- 
ing immigrants  to  Wisconsin.  A  branch  office  was  es- 
tablished in  Quebec,  though  not  with  satisfactory  results. 

The  existence  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Immigration 
became  widely  known  throughout  Europe,  and  its  square 
dealing  strengthened  the  good  name  the  state  had  already 
gained.  The  office  was  discontinued  in  1855,  but  in  1867 
the  state  established  a  board  of  immigration.    The  gov- 


478  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

ernor,  ex  officio  a  member,  was  authorized  to  appoint  a 
local  committee  of  three  citizens  in  each  county  to  assist 
the  board,  particularly  in  making  out  lists  of  the  names 
and  addresses  of  European  friends  of  Wisconsin  settlers, 
so  that  information  in  regard  to  the  state  might  be  sent 
to  them/  For  some  years  Bernhard  Domschke,  a  German 
editor  of  Milwaukee,  was  a  member  of  the  board,  and 
German  pamphlets  were  distributed  in  large  numbers.  In 
1871  the  board  was  abolished,  and  the  office  of  a  state 
commissioner  of  immigration  was  created,  to  be  elective 
for  a  term  of  two  years.  The  incumbent  was  to  reside  in 
Milwaukee  and  to  appoint  a  local  agent  for  Chicago.  The 
duties  of  the  commissioner  were  to  prepare  and  distribute 
pamphlets,  giving  information  about  the  resources  of  the 
state  and  the  land  still  available  for  settlement.  In  1879 
the  experiment  of  a  board  of  immigration  was  renewed, 
and  it  was  maintained  from  1881  to  1887 ;  J.  A.  Becher 
was  the  well-qualified  president  of  the  board.  During  this 
period  Wisconsin  was  well  represented  in  Europe,  espe- 
cially in  Germany."  The  Wisconsin  Central  Railroad  sent 
its  agent,  K.  K.  Kennan,  to  Basel,  Switzerland.  He  found 
it  to  his  advantage  to  be  under  the  state  authority  and  to 
represent  the  interests  of  the  whole  state  of  Wisconsin, 
rather  than  those  of  a  private  corporation.  Through  his 
efforts  and  those  of  the  board,  about  five  thousand  immi- 
grants were  secured,  mainly  from  the  forest  lands  of  Ba- 
varia, and  were  distributed  along  the  line  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin Central  Railroad  from  Stevens  Point  to  Ashland. 
The  inducement  held  out  to  them  was  good  wages  in  the 

1  Cf.  Everest-Levi,  supra,  pp.  327-328.  (Reprint,  pp.  31-33.) 
^  Twenty  thousand  pamphlets  and  nine  thousand  copies  of  a  pocket  map, 
with  a  description  of  Wisconsin,  were  printed  in  1882  and  largely  distrib- 
uted in  Germany.  Ihid.,  p.  33,  note. 


IN  THE   NORTHWEST  479 

lumber  camps,  where  they  might  in  a  short  time  earn 
enough  to  buy  land  and  build  homes.  Some  provision  was 
made  by  the  Wisconsin  Central  to  accommodate  the  set- 
tlers; e.  o-.,  in  Medford,  where  a  house  was  used  to  shelter 
from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  immigrants  for  two 
weeks  free  of  charge,  with  the  use  of  a  large  cooking- 
stove/ 

The  German  books  and  pamphlets,  published  for  dis- 
tribution, and  written  by  travelers  in  Wisconsin,  are  too 
numerous  to  enumerate  with  a  view  to  completeness.  A 
few  of  the  important  titles  are  as  follows :  — 

A.  Ziesler,  "  Skizzen  einer  Reise  durch  Nordamerika  und 
Westindieu  mit  besonderer  Beriicksichtigung  des  deutschen  Ele- 
ments, der  Auswanderung  und  der  landwirthsehaftlichen  Ver- 
haltnisse  in  dem  neuen  Staat  Wisconsin  "  (Dresden  and  Leip- 
zig, 1849);  Dr.  Carl  de  Haas,  "Nordamerika"  (Wisconsin, 
Calumet,  1848),  "  Winke  f  iir  Auswanderer  "  ;  Freimund  Gold- 
manns  "  Briefe  aus  Wisconsin  in  Nordamerika,"  herausgegeben 
von  Dr.  G.  Goldmann  (Leipzig,  1849) ;  Wilhelra  Dames, 
"Wie  sieht  es  in  Nordamerika  aus?"  (1849).  Other  books 
were  those  of  Theodor  Wettstein  (1848),  on  the  physical  fea- 
tures of  Wisconsin,  and  of  W.  C.  L.  Koch  (Gottingen,  1851), 
on  the  mineral  wealth  about  Lake  Superior  and  the  Mississippi 
River;  also  K.  K.  Kennan's  "Der  Staat  Wisconsin,  seine 
Hiilfsquellen  und  Vorziige  fiir  Auswanderer  "  (Basel,  1882)  ; 
Gustav  Richter,  "  Der  Nordamerikanische  Freistaat  Wisconsin  " 
(Wesel,  1849). 

The  geographical  distribution  of  the  Germans  in  Wis- 
consin is  as  follows :  They  are  most  numerous  in  the  east- 
ern and  north-central  counties,  which  correspond  to  the 
heavily  wooded  districts  of  the  state.  Their  preference 
was  first  for  the  wooded  lands  near  the  main  routes  of 
travel,  viz.,  the  eastern  counties.  Thence  they  spread  to 

*  Everest-Levi  (Reprint),  p.  36. 


480  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

the  counties  in  tlie  north-central  parts  of  the  state  in  the 
deep  forests.  This  selection  was  by  no  means  accidental, 
since  the  German  agriculturist  knew  that  heavy  timber 
grows  only  on  fertile  soil.  His  progress  could,  of  course, 
not  be  so  rapid  as  on  prairie  land,  but  the  results  after 
laborious  industry  would  be  permanently  good.  R.  G. 
Thwaites,^  secretary  and  superintendent  of  the  State  His- 
torical Society  of  Wisconsin,  makes  the  following  state- 
ment concerning  the  distribution  of  the  Germans  in 
Wisconsin :  — 

The  Germans  number  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  Taylor  County,  sixty-five  per  cent  of  Dodge,  and  fifty-five 
per  cent  of  Buffalo.  They  are  also  found  in  especially  large 
groups  in  Milwaukee,  Ozaukee,  Washington,  Sheboygan,  Mani- 
towoc, Jefferson,  Outagamie,  Fond  du  Lac,  Sauk,  Waupaca, 
Dane,  Marathon,  Grant,  Waushara,  Green  Lake,  Langlade, 
and  Clark  counties.  There  are  Germans  in  every  county  of 
the  state  and  numerous  isolated  German  settlements,  but  in  the 
counties  named  these  people  are  particularly  numerous.  Some- 
times the  groups  are  of  special  interest,  because  the  people  came 
for  the  most  part  from  a  particular  district  in  the  Fatherland. 
For  instance,  Lomira,  in  Dodge  County,  was  settled  almost 
entirely  by  Prussians  from  Brandenburg,  who  belonged  to  the 
Evangelical  Association.  The  neighboring  towns  of  Hermann 
and  Theresa,  also  in  Dodge  County,  were  settled  principally  by 
natives  of  Pomerania.  In  Calumet  County  there  are  Oldenburg, 
Luxemburg,  and  New  Holstein  settlements.  St.  Kilian,  in  Wash- 
ington County,  is  settled  by  people  from  Northern  Bohemia, 
just  over  the  German  border.  The  town  of  Belgium,  Ozaukee 
County,  is  populated  almost  exclusively  by  Luxemburgers,  while 
Oldenburgers  occupy  the  German  settlement  at  Cedarburg. 
Three  fourths  of  the  population  of  Farmington,  Washington 
County,  are  from  Saxony.  In  the  same  county  Jackson  is  chiefly 

*  Preliminary  Notes  on  the  Distribution  of  Foreign  Groups  in  Wisconsin,  by 
Reuben  G.  Thwaites.  (Extract  from  the  Annual  Report  of  the  State  Historical 
Society  of  Wisconsin,  1890,  pp.  58-59.) 


IN  THE  NORTHWEST  481 

settled  by  Pomeranians,  while  one  half  of  the  population  of  Ke- 
waskum  are  from  the  same  German  province.  In  Dane  County 
there  are  several  interesting  groups  of  German  Catholics.  Rox- 
bury  is  nine  tenths  German,  the  people  coming  mostly  from 
Rhenish  Prussia  and  Bavaria.  Germans  predominate  in  Cross 
Plains,  the  rest  of  the  population  being  Irish.  The  German 
families  of  Middleton  came  from  Koln,  Rhenish  Prussia,  and  so 
did  those  of  Berry,  a  town  almost  solidly  German. 

In  Wisconsin,  whose  population  is  three  fourths  of  for- 
eign origin,  the  German  element  has  always  predominated. 
The  industrial,  agricultural,  and  commercial  prominence 
of  the  state  is  due  more  largely  to  the  Germans  than  to 
all  other  foreign  elements  combined.  They  have  also  been 
more  successful  in  maintaining  their  social  life  than  else- 
where, including  their  introduction  of  music,  their  sing- 
ing-societies, their  Turnvereine,  their  opposition  to  the 
Puritanic  spirit.  The  traveler  through  Wisconsin  is  now 
and  then  impressed  with  a  similarity  in  landscape  to  parts 
of  Germany.^  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  eastern  and 
north-central  counties  of  the  state,  where,  as  before  men- 
tioned, the  Germans  are  most  numerous.  The  well-kept 
farms,  the  neat  houses,  commonly  of  light-colored  brick, 
the  generous  barns,  and  the  normal  appearance  of  order, 
cleanliness,  neatness,  and  substantial  prosperity  are  as  im- 
pressive as  they  are  in  Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania, 
while  German  traditions  and  German  speech,  owing  to 
later  settlement,  are  still  more  live  in  Wisconsin  than  in 
that  earlier  stronghold  of  German  influence,  the  Keystone 
State. 

Minnesota 

The  history  of  Wisconsin's  neighbor  on  the  west  also 
exhibits  an  extraordinary  development  within  a  few  years. 

1  Cf.  K.  Lamprecht,  Americana,  p.  24  (Freiburg  i,  B,  1906)  :  "An  den 
schousten  Stellen  scheint  es,  als  seien  wir  nacb  dem  Lande  gekommen,  wie  es 


482  THE   GERIMAN  ELEMENT 

Minnesota  was  organized  as  a  territory  in  1849.  The  cen- 
sus of  the  following  year  gives  it  6077  inhabitants.^  In 
the  next  decade  came  the  record-breaking  increase  to 
nearly  thirty  times  that  number,  viz.,  172,023.  By  De- 
cember 1,  1862,  Minnesota^  had  sent  11,877  men  into 
the  Union  army,  and  Governor  Ramsey  could  truthfully 
say  that  Minnesota  had  sent  a  larger  number  of  men  into 
the  field  than  it  had  had  inhabitants  in  1850;  the  fact  is, 
she  sent  nearly  twice  as  many. 

The  German  population  of  Minnesota  has  always  been 
large,  though  not  maintaining  the  same  ratio  to  the  re- 
maining population  as  in  Wisconsin.  According  to  the 
last  census,  the  total  foreign  population  of  Minnesota  in 
1900  was  1,312,019.  Of  these  289,822  were  of  German 
parentage.  The  German  population  was  larger  than  that 
of  any  other  nationality,  but  second  to  the  Scandinavian 
element  if  Norway  and  Sweden  be  taken  together  as  one 
people.^ 

Excepting  the  men  in  military  stations  the  earliest  pio- 
neers of  Minnesota  were  a  company  of  German  Swiss, 
who  migrated  from  the  Red  River  settlements  in  British 
America.  In  1822  five  families  went  with  the  American 
cattle-drivers  who  returned  from  the  north  to  the  United 
States.  The  Swiss  received  aid  at  Fort  St.  Anthony  (later 
called  Fort  Snelling),  at  the  confluence  of  the  Minnesota 

sich  der  deutsche  Landwirt  traumen  mag  :  ein  verbessertes  Deutschland,  eine 
Gegeud,  von  der  der  Dicbter  ahnend  sagte :  Und  wie  ein  Garten  war  das 
Land  zu  schauen.  Das  ist  deutsches  Farmerlaud,  Land  dentschen  Fleiszes." 

^  They  were  located  almost  without  exception  on  the  Mississippi  River, 
as  far  as  it  was  navigable. 

^  Minnesota  was  admitted  as  a  state  in  1858. 

s  Sweden  numbered  211,769  ;  Norway,  224,892,  The  total  population  of 
the  state,  including  the  native  element,  was  1,751,394,  the  population  of  for- 
eign and  mixed  parentage  being  74.9  per  cent  of  the  whole.  Cf.  Twelfth 
Census  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i  (Population,  part  i,  pp.  806,  808,  810). 


IN   THE   NORTHWEST  483 

and  the  Mississippi  rivers.  There  they  remained  for  the 
winter,  and  the  next  spring  settled  on  the  military  re- 
servation, selling  their  farm  products  to  the  garrison.^  In 
the  spring  of  1823  thirteen  other  colonists  with  their 
families  from  the  Red  River  country  braved  the  raw  cli- 
mate, the  trackless  woods,  and  hostile  savages.  They  used 
for  transportation  the  so-called  Red  River  carts,  con- 
structed without  iron,  untanned  hides  being  drawn  over 
the  rudely  fashioned  wooden  wheels,  in  place  of  tires.^ 
They  tarried  for  some  time  at  Lake  Traverse,  about  two 
hundred  miles  from  Fort  Snelling,  and  then  went  on,  de- 
scending the  St.  Peter  (Minnesota)  River,  in  dug-outs. 
After  a  journey  of  twelve  hundred  miles  through  a 
country,  part  of  which  had  never  been  traversed  by  white 
men,  they  reached  the  Mississippi,  and  at  length  St. 
Louis.  The  end  of  their  wanderings,  however,  had  not  yet 
come,  for  they  found  the  climate  of  St.  Louis  unsuitable, 
and  decided  to  settle  farther  north.  They  finally  located 
about  fifteen  miles  northeast  of  La  Pointe,  where  they 
found  employment  in  the  lead-mines.^  The  large  migration 
of  the  Swiss  colony  on  the  Red  River  did  not  come,  how- 
ever, until  1826.  The  severe  winter  of  1825-26  and  the 
terrible  floods  of  the  succeeding  spring  destroyed  the  pro- 
perty and  food-stores  of  the  Red  River  colonists  and  threat- 

^  The  names  of  the  first  pioneers  of  Minnesota  were  :  Louis  Massie,  Jacob 
Falstrom,  Antoine  Pepin,  Joseph  Rosch,  Joseph  Bisson.  Cf.  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vol.  xi,  p.  15. 

2  Such  carts  were  frequently  seen  in  St.  Paul  before  the  opening  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi,  p.  15  (illus- 
tration). 

3  The  location  is  about  the  present  town  of  Galena,  in  the  northwestern 
corner  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  A  number  of  others  of  the  Red  River  colo- 
nists settled  the  towns  of  Bern  and  Zurich,  in  Hay  Township,  Ontario.  The 
leaders  of  this  group  of  about  ten  families  were  :  Christian  Hay,  Georg  Hess, 
and  Johann  Rothermiihl.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xi,  p.  18. 


484  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

ened  them  with  famine.  In  June,  1826,  two  hundred  and 
forty-three  people  left  Fort  Garry,  and  followed  the  path 
of  their  predecessors  by  way  of  the  Red  River  to  Lake  Trav- 
erse, thence  to  Fort  St.  Anthony,  and  then  by  steamer  on 
the  Mississippi  to  their  destination.  La  Pointe,  where  they 
were  warmly  received  by  the  earlier  Swiss  settlers.  They 
settled  mostly  as  agriculturists,  but  some  became  miners. 
In  the  Black  Hawk  War,  six  years  later,  almost  all  of  the 
men  volunteered  under  Captain  Schneider.  Their  descend- 
ants spread  over  the  Northwest,  but  are  to  be  found  in 
the  o^reatest  numbers  in  the  lead  districts. 

The  Red  River  Swiss,  though  the  first  settlers,  did  not 
select  Minnesota  for  their  permanent  homes.  The  German 
element  had  numerous  other  representatives,  however,  who 
pushed  the  frontier  line  of  Minnesota  to  the  westward. 
There  was  the  German  settlement  at  Henderson  on  the 
St.  Peter  (Minnesota)  River,  forming  a  nucleus  for  log 
houses  scattered  through  the  forests  and  over  the  prairies. 
But  the  most  interesting  settlement,  historically,  was  one 
farther  west,  called  New  Ulm,  which  to-day  is  a  prosperous 
town  of  over  5400  inhabitants.  An  organization  of  work- 
ingmen  in  Chicago  was  responsible  for  the  settlement. 
Their  membership  having  grown  to  eight  hundred  in  1854, 
their  ambition  was  to  leave  the  city's  labor  market  and 
establish  farm  homes  on  cheap  land  on  the  western  fron- 
tier of  Minnesota.  The  pioneers  that  were  sent  to  settle 
had  some  dif&culty  in  finding  their  destination,  but  they 
were  fortunate  finally  in  obtaining  a  good  location  on  the 
Cottonwood  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Minnesota.  They 
measured  off  their  land  in  1855,  but  their  coming  occa- 
sioned great  wrath  among  the  Sioux,  who  pulled  up  the 
surveyors'  stakes  and  annoyed  the  whites  until  the  latter 
drove  them  off.  The  dispute  was  referred  to  the  governor 


IN  THE   NORTHWEST  485 

at  St.  Paul,  who  decided  that  the  settlers  would  have  to 
move  if  they  were  not  on  congressional  land.  It  was  found, 
however,  that  the  reservation  of  the  Indians  began  nine 
miles  beyond  the  new  settlement,  called  New  Ulm,  and 
therefore  the  German  settlers  were  left  in  possession.^  A 
society  of  Chicago  Turners^  soon  united  with  the  first 
organization,  so  that  by  1857  a  considerable  number  of 
settlers  had  arrived,  making  a  respectable  village.  Two 
steam-mills  were  erected,  farm-houses  spread  out  in  all 
directions,  and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  New  Ulm 
was  incorporated  as  a  town  in  the  territory  of  Minnesota. 
The  new  town  proved  its  virility  in  1861,  by  organizing 
a  company  of  militia  to  be  sent  to  Fort  Ridgely,  about 
fifteen  miles  distant,  on  the  Minnesota  River,  and  also  by 
placing  many  recruits  in  the  service  of  the  Union  army. 
After  the  departure  of  most  of  the  fighting  element,  a 
disaster  befell  the  settlers  which  nearly  destroyed  New 
Ulm.  This  was  the  massacre  of  1862,  by  the  Sioux  or 
Dakota  Indians. 

The  Indians  had  some  grounds  for  discontent,  but  as 
frequently  happened  on  the  frontier  the  penalty  for  the 
wrongs  committed  was  paid  by  the  innocent  pioneers. 
The  annual  sums  of  money  which  had  been  promised  the 
Indians  by  the  United  States  government,  for  lands  ceded 
by  them  in  1858  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Minnesota 
River,  were  promptly  paid  out  of  the  United  States  Treas- 
ury, but  very  rarely  reached  the  Indians.  The  money  went 

1  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  iii,  pp.  13  ff. :  vol.  iv,  pp.  122  £P. :  vols,  viii  and 
ix,  "  Geschichte  von  New-Ulm,  Minnesota,"  von  Alex.  Berghold.  The  twen- 
tieth anniversary  of.  the  settlement  of  New  Ulm  was  celebrated  October  11, 
1874,  making  the  date  of  the  original  settlement  1854.  It  was  at  that  time 
the  westernmost  point  of  settlement  in  the  territory  of  Minnesota. 

2  a  Dep  Ansiedlungsverein  des  sozialistischen  Turnerbundes  von  Nord- 
amerika." 


486  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

into  the  pockets  of  the  Indian  agents  and  traders,  who 
resorted  to  the  most  varied  pretexts  for  defrauding  the 
Sioux.  One  method  employed  by  the  Indian  traders  was 
to  set  up  storehouses,  where  suppHes  were  sold  at  enor- 
mous rates.  The  Indians,  having  no  money,  were  given 
credit,  in  consideration  of  which  they  were  made  to  sign 
papers  whereby  ultimately  they  transferred  their  claims 
to  white  thieves.  The  Indians  could  not  read  or  write, 
and  did  not  understand  the  papers  which  they  marked. 
Again,  heavy  fines  were  sometimes  imposed  upon  them ; 
a  white  man  in  Sioux  City,  for  instance,  received  five 
thousand  dollars  for  stolen  horses,  which  sum  was  simply 
taken  out  of  the  congressional  funds,  and  charged  against 
the  Indians.^ 

Danger  from  the  Indians  began  as  early  as  1857,  in 
which  year  about  forty  settlers  were  killed  or  captured. 
The  insurrection  was  put  down  with  the  aid  of  friendly 
Indians,  among  them  Chief  Little  Crow,  who  in  the  suc- 
ceeding struggles  became  an  implacable  foe  of  the  white 
man.  In  1861  the  crops  of  the  Indians  turned  out  badly 
and  famine  stared  them  in  the  face.  By  the  middle  of 
December  fifteen  hundred  of  them  had  to  be  supplied 
with  food  to  keep  them  from  starvation.  The  hope  of 
early  hunting  was  dispelled  by  the  heavy  snows.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  pay-day  of  1862  was  looked  for- 
ward to  with  desperate  eagerness.  The  Indians  had  some 
knowledge  of  the  progress  of  the  Civil  War,  and  were 
in  fear  that  the  government  could  not  pay.  When  from 
five  to  six  thousand  Sioux  gathered  about  the  agency 
clamoring  for  their  money,  they  were  told  that  they 
would  receive  it,  but  that  they  would  have  to  wait.  A 
great  many  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  and  the 

'  Cf .  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  viii,  pp.  229-230. 


IN  THE  NORTHWEST  487 

more  reckless  element,  the  young  braves,  took  advantage 
of  the  situation.  The  older  Indians  opposed  the  plan  of 
an  insurrection  on  a  large  scale,  but  the  younger  warriors 
prevailed,  and  determined  to  wipe  out  all  the  pioneer 
settlements  at  one  fell  swoop.  The  plan  matured  quickly, 
and  the  first  deed  of  violence  was  committed  August  4, 
1862,  when  four  hundred  mounted  Indians  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  oh  foot  broke  open  the  door  of  the  store- 
house, shot  down  the  American  flag,  and  took  out  one 
hundred  and  fifty  sacks  of  flour.  The  storehouse  was  re- 
taken, but  the  fact  that  no  Indians  were  punished  made 
the  latter  all  the  bolder.  As  mentioned  above,  the  de- 
parture of  recruits  for  the  war  (the  McKeeville  Rangers) 
weakened  the  resisting  power  of  the  pioneers  and  gave 
the  Sioux  a  golden  opportunity. 

The  German  settlement  of  New  Ulm,  being  farthest 
west,  had  to  endure  the  brunt  of  the  attacks.  Jacob  Nix, 
a  native  of  Bingen-on-the-Rhine,  was  commandant  of  the 
defenses  of  the  town,  such  as  they  were,  during  the  first 
days  of  the  hostilities.  He  had  much  trouble  in  convinc- 
ing the  people  of  their  danger.  He  had  come  from  Fort 
Ridgely,  and  had  seen  the  unmistakable  signs  of  Indian 
outrages.  The  outlying  Upper  Settlement,  seven  miles 
west  of  New  Ulm,  was  totally  destroyed  and  every  inhab- 
itant killed.  There  was  no  hope  for  the  farmers  in  solitary 
places.  Men,  women,  and  children  were  slaughtered,  or 
tortured  to  death.  The  Indians  employed  their  usual  tac- 
tics, approaching  in  a  friendly  manner  and  catching  their 
victims  off  their  guard.  New  Ulm  was  almost  taken  by 
surprise,  so  quick  was  the  approach  of  the  Indian  advance 
guard.  The  story  ^  goes  that  a  number  of  New  Ulm  citi- 

*  This  account  is  based  on  the  articles  of  Alex.  Berghold  in  Der  deutsche 
Pionier,  vols,  viii  and  ix. 


488  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

zens  were  making  an  excursion  in  wagons  to  gather  in 
volunteers  for  the  Union  army.  With  fluttering  banners 
and  cheering  music  they  drove  directly  in  the  direction  of 
the  scene  of  the  massacres.  The  Indians,  hearing  the 
sounds,  waited  for  the  wagons  to  approach  and  then  re- 
ceived them  with  a  murderous  volley.  Most  of  those  in 
the  first  wagon  were  killed,  but  those  behind  found  time 
to  turn  and  effect  their  escape  from  the  Indians,  who  did 
not  pursue  them.  The  survivors  then  gave  the  alarm, 
though  they  also  experienced  difficulty  in  impressing  the 
citizens  of  New  Ulm  with  the  imminence  of  their  danofer. 
Settlers  from  all  directions  now  hastened  to  the  town, 
which  was  surrounded  by  the  Sioux  on  the  seventeenth 
of  August,  1862.  Their  attack  lasted  into  the  night,  and 
they  advanced  into  the  middle  of  the  city.  The  settlers 
were  under  the  disadvantage  of  not  having  their  fighting 
strength  at  home  and  of  being  poorly  provided  with  arms 
and  ammunition.  They  fought  from  behind  barricades 
set  up  in  the  streets,  their  desperation  making  up  for 
their  handicaps.  The  first  attack  was  probably  made  only 
by  the  outposts  of  the  Indians,  who  withdrew  next  morn- 
ing. Little  Crow  taking  them  westward  to  Fort  Ridgely, 
which  they  then  besieged.,  The  defenders  succeeded,  how- 
ever, in  communicating  their  danger  to  the  settlement  of 
St.  Peter  and  they  received  aid.  When  the  fort  proved 
its  ability  to  make  a  stout  resistance,  the  Indians  returned 
upon  New  Ulm,  laying  waste  all  the  country  that  lay 
between  the  two  points. 

The  second  battle  at  New  Ulm  occurred  on  the  twenty- 
third  of  August,  but  the  settlers  had  in  the  mean  time 
improved  their  barricades  and  had  also  received  a  rein- 
forcement of  seventy-five  men  under  Captain  Cox.  The 
attacks  continued  Saturday  and  Sunday,  after  which  the 


IN  THE  NORTHWEST  489 

Indians  withdrew  to  try  their  fortunes  at  other  places. 
The  losses  at  New  Ulm  are  variously  estimated,  but  the 
property  loss  was  no  doubt  greater  than  the  loss  of  life.^ 
The  terrors  of  the  massacres  fell  more  heavily  upon  the 
smaller  settlements,  such  as  Newton,  about  six  miles 
north  of  New  Ulm.  The  experiences  of  the  German  pio- 
neers during  the  Sioux  massacres,  though  of  shorter  dura- 
tion, were  no  less  terrible  than  during  the  border  war- 
fare in  the  Mohawk  or  the  Ohio  Valley,  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  story  of  Maria  Hartmann  rivals  that  of  Mary 
Inglis  and  the  "  Dutch  woman,"  in  the  pioneer  history 
of  the  Kanawha,  for  its  harrowing  experiences  and  hair- 
breadth escapes,  continuous  for  more  than  a  month.'* 

At  the  direction  of  the  government,  the  town  of  New 
Ulm  was  deserted  by  its  inhabitants  after  the  second  at- 
tack, though  many  settlers  were  loath  to  go.  A  train  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  wagons  made  its  way  toward  points 
more  easterly,  that  could  be  more  easily  defended.  Such 
as  were  able  to  bear  arms  remained  at  Mankato,  in  order 
to  defend  that  town  ;  the  others  went  on  to  St.  Peter,^ 
where  they  were  well  provided  for,  or  even  to  St.  Paul, 
the  capital  of  the  state.  Some  of  the  bolder  spirits  re- 
turned to  New  Ulm  as  soon  as  they  heard  that  militia 
had  been  sent  out  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians.  The  new 
settlers  found  the  farms  in  good  condition,  and  prosperity 
quickly  followed.  The  German  element  continued  to  pre- 
dominate, and  at  the  present  day  New  Ulm  is  still  a  Ger- 
man town. 

1  One  estimate  is  that  New  Ulm  lost  eight  killed  and  seventy  wounded, 
and  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  houses  in 
that  place  were  burned  by  the  enemy. 

^  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  pp.  106-109. 

'  St.  Peter,  Mankato,  and  Fort  Ridgely  are  all  located  on  the  Minnesota 
River. 


490  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

The  punitive  expedition  *  which  was  sent  out  by  the 
government  captured  a  large  number  of  Indians,  three 
hundred  and  three  of  whom  were  sentenced  to  death. 
They  were  pardoned,  however,  all  but  thirty-nine,  some 
of  the  latter  being  half-breeds.  The  thirty-nine  were 
executed  publicly  December  7, 1862,  and  the  terror  which 
this  act  inspired  brought  the  Indian  attacks  to  an  end. 
Official  reports  gave  the  number  of  those  killed  by  the 
Sioux  as  somewhat  over  seven  hundred,  the  number  of 
fugitives  from  outlying  settlements  as  thirty  thousand, 
and  the  property  loss  as  about  ^2,000,000.  The  German 
pioneers  suffered  a  large  part  of  this  loss  in  life  and  pro- 
perty, and  thereby  contributed  once  more  to  the  defense 
of  the  American  frontier,  a  service  which  the  same  stock 
had  continuously  performed  since  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

(^)    Hie  Southwest — Texas 

The  history  of  the  German  element  in  the  state  of 
Texas  presents  some  important  individual  traits.  The  tale 
is  one  of  increased  hardship  and  suffering,  due  to  the 
treacherous  climate,  to  unfamiliarity  with  the  products  of 
the  soil,  and  to  hostile  encounters  with  warlike  Indian 
tribes ;  yet  the  sequel  is  the  same  as  in  other  German  col- 
onies,—  victory  hard-earned  and  prosperity  well-deserved. 
Lured  by  speculators,  dishonest  or  unsophisticated,  Ger- 
man settlers  poured  into  Texas  after  the  revolt  of  the  "  Lone 
Star  "  against  Santa  Anna.  Before  the  territory  became 
a  part  of  the  United  States  the  German  pioneers  joined 
the  American  forces  in  their  invasion  of  Mexico,  which 

^  Four  thousand  Sioux  were  pursued  in  1862-63  by  an  American  army 
under  the  command  of  General  Sibley.  They  were  brought  to  a  stand  at 
Devil's  Lake,  Dakota.  Little  Crow  was  not  captured,  but  he  was  killed 
later  in  Minnesota,  probably  by  accident. 


IN  THE   SOUTHWEST  491 

guaranteed  the  future  of  Texas.  They  were  expected  to 
do  more  by  their  European  promoters,  who  had  unscru- 
pulously cast  them  upon  the  fever-ridden  swamps  or  tor- 
rid deserts  of  the  Gidf  coast.  But  the  extravagant  hope 
of  creating  a  German  state  in  the  Far  Western  territory 
was  doomed  to  failure  a  third  time/  with  the  resultant 
gain  to  Texas  of  a  large  German  element  in  her  popula- 
tion, easy  of  assimilation  and  sturdy  in  character. 

In  1823,  when  Texas  was  still  a  part  of  Mexico,  Baron 
von  Bastrop  founded  a  German  colony  on  the  Colorado 
River.  Named  Bastrop  ^  after  the  founder,  it  was  the  ear- 
liest settlement  by  the  Germans  in  Texas,  and  until  the 
foundation  of  Austin  was  the  northernmost  white  settle- 
ment in  the  valley  of  the  Colorado.  The  inhabitants  were 
mostly  Oldenburgers  of  the  County  Delmenhorst.  They 
were  often  harassed  by  the  Indians,  and  were  compelled 
from  time  to  time  to  leave  their  settlement.  Most  of  them, 
however,  returned  as  soon  as  the  troubles  seemed  over. 
About  the  end  of  the  twenties  and  at  the  beginning  of 
the  thirties,  many  German  families  had  located  between  the 
Brazos  and  the  Colorado  rivers.^  The  settlers  shared 
the  fortunes  of  the  province  in  which  they  lived,  and 
when,  in  1836,  Texas  revolted  against  the  dictatorship  of 
Santa  Anna,  the  Germans  fought  for  their  adopted  coun- 
try. In  proportion  to  their  numbers  they  assisted  in  gain- 
ing  the  glorious  victory  of    San  Jacinto,*  in  which  the 

1  The  attempts  at  forming  a  German  state  in  Missouri  and  Wisconsin 
have  been  described  above. 

2  The  name  has  survived  for  town  and  county. 

^  Cf.  Eickhoff,  In  der  neuen  Heimat,  pp.  321-323. 

*  The  historical  novelist,  Charles  Sealsfield  (Carl  Postl),  in  his  master- 
piece, Das  Kajiitenbuch,  depicts  the  Texan  war  of  independence  as  the  his- 
torical background  of  his  romance.  The  book  has  been  translated  into  Eng- 
lish several  times,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Cabin  Book,"  and  is  frequently 
spoken  of  as  the  gem  of  Sealsfield's  tales  describing  American  frontier  life. 


492  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Germanic  overcame  the  Latin  races,  as  they  had  done 
before  in  Canada,  Louisiana,  and  Florida.  A  number  of 
young  Germans  had  crossed  the  American  border  as  vol- 
unteers in  this  Texan  war  of  liberation,  and  an  increase 
of  immigration  to  Texas  followed  after  the  war.  In  New 
York  City  there  was  formed  in  1839  a  society  with  the 
name  "  Germania,"  whose  aim  was  to  establish  a  colony 
in  Texas.  The  first  division  of  settlers,  numbering  one 
hundred  and  thirty  persons,  sailed  from  New  York  on 
November  2  of  the  same  year,  contracting  to  cultivate  in 
common  an  area  of  ground  for  three  years,  after  which  it 
was  to  be  divided  among  the  members.  The  company  was 
provided  with  rations  for  six  or  eight  months  and  with 
implements  necessary  for  building  houses.  Galveston  was 
to  be  made  the  depot  for  the  succeeding  immigrations ; 
the  first  division,  however,  did  not  carry  out  its  pro- 
gramme, but  dissolved  in  Houston.  Its  president  and  some 
others  of  the  more  well-to-do  returned  to  New  York; 
the  others  were  left  to  shift  for  themselves.^  Such  was  the 
fate  not  only  of  German  immigrants,  but  of  most  early 
immigrants  to  Texas,  who  were  generally  duped  by  luring 
advertisements  and  brilliant  prosf)ects.  As  elsewhere,  so  in 
Texas,  the  German  immigration  seemed  very  desirable  to 
promoters.  In  the  early  forties  a  Frenchman,  Henri  Castro, 
received  a  land-grant  west  of  San  Antonio,  and  founded 
Castroville,  in  the  present  Medina  County.  A  number  of 
German,  Alsatian,  and  Swiss  immigrants  settled  there. 
A  proof  of  the  increasing  German  immigration  was  the  es- 
tablishment at  Austin  in  1841  of  the  "  Teutonia-Orden," 
the  purpose  of  which  was  to  preserve  the  national  German 
traits,  to  encourage  German  immigration,  and  to  carry  on 
a  correspondence  with  Germany  in  the  interests  of  Texas. 

1  Eickhoff,  p.  323. 


IN  THE   SOUTHWEST  493 

About  the  same  time,  and  possibly  encouraged  by  the 
example  of  Castro,  a  plan  was  matured  to  arouse  Ger- 
man immigration  on  an  unprecedented  scale.  Count  von 
Castell,  an  adjutant  of  the  Duke  of  Nassau,  conceived 
the  idea  of  concentrating  the  German  immigration  from 
Hessen  and  surrounding  countries  upon  one  area.  Castell 
succeeded  in  interesting  a  large  number  of  minor  princes 
and  influential  noblemen.  They  formed  a  company,*  each 
member  depositing  a  moderately  large  sum  of  money.  In 
May,  1842,  two  representatives.  Count  von  Boos-Waldeck 
and  Victor  von  Leiningen,  were  sent  over  to  Texas  to 
inspect  the  ground.  Boos  remained  in  Texas,  founding 
a  plantation  at  Jack  Creek  (called  Nassau),  which  is  still 
in  existence.^  Leiningen  returned  in  the  following  year 
with  favorable  reports.  The  "  Mainzer  Adelsverein,"  as 
the  company  styled  itself,  then  issued  its  programme  ^  ad- 
vertising Texas  as  the  one  desirable  place  for  the  German 
immigrant.  The  "Verein"  was  not  fortunate  in  its  first 
purchase  of  land,  from  Henry  Fischer,  a  native  of  Cassel, 
who  had  lived  several  years  in  Houston,  Texas.  Fischer 
sold  to  them  a  large  stretch  of  land  on  the  San  Saba 
River  for  sixteen  thousand  dollars  and  a  share  in  the  pro- 
fits. The  prospects  appeared  brilliant  for  the  settlers,  and 

1  The  members  were  :  the  Duke  of  Nassau,  Protector  of  the  Society  ;  the 
Duke  of  Meiningen  ;  the  Duke  of  Coburg-Gotha  ;  the  Prince  of  Prussia  ; 
the  Landgrave  of  Hessen-Homburg  ;  the  Prince  of  Schwarzburg-Rudolstat  ; 
Prince  Moritz  of  Nassau  ;  the  Princes  of  Leiningen,  Neuwied,  Solms-Braun- 
fels,  Colloredo-Mansfeld,  and  Schonburg-AValdenburg  ;  the  Princes  Alexan- 
der and  Carl  of  Solms-Braunfels ;  Counts  of  Neu-Leiningen  Westerburg 
and  Alt-Leiningen  Westerburg  (Friedrich,  Victor,  and  Christian)  ;  Counts 
Ysenburg-Meerholz,  Hatzfeld,  Knyphausen,  Colloredo-Mansfeld,  Carl  von 
Castell,  and  several  others. 

'  Cf.  Eickhoff,  In  der  neuen  Heimat,  p.  324. 

'  Cf .  Eickhoff,  In  der  neuen  Heimat,  pp.  323-333,  for  a  complete  account 
of  the  plans  and  activities  of  the  "  Adelsverein."  Cf.  also  Loher,  Geschichte 
und  Zustdnde  der  Deutschen  in  Amerika,  pp.  349-353. 


494  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

even  conservative  men  like  Herr  von  Wrede  spoke  favor- 
ably of  the  outlook,  and  he  himself  made  a  second  jour- 
ney to  Texas,  where  unfortunately  he  was  killed  by  the  Co- 
manches.  The  "  Verein"  demanded  three  hundred  gulden 
from  a  man,  or  six  hundred  gulden  from  a  family,  and  for 
these  sums  would  furnish  their  transportation  to  the 
place  of  settlement,  and  would  give  them  a  log  house  and 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  ^  of  land  for  every  male  in- 
habitant and  double  the  number  of  acres  for  every  family. 
Cattle  and  agricultural  implements  were  to  be  obtained 
at  cheap  rates.  Churches,  schools,  drugs,  and  hospital 
care  were  all  to  be  furnished,  provided  the  settler  would 
cultivate  fifteen  acres  of  land  for  three  years  and  would 
occupy  his  house.  Concealed  beneath  these  favorable 
terms  was  the  plan  to  bring  German  settlers  to  Texas  in 
such  numbers  that  by  and  by  the  German  population 
should  predominate  over  all  other  national  elements.  Texas 
did  not  then  belong  to  the  Union,  and  the  English  gov- 
ernment, which  opposed  the  annexation  of  Texas  by  the 
United  States,  looked  with  satisfaction  upon  the  ambitious 
undertaking  of  the  German  noblemen. 

In  May,  1844,  Prince  Carl  of  Solms-Braunfels  started 
for  the  new  land,  and  was  followed  by  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  families,  who  sailed  in  three  ships  from  Bremen. 
They  arrived  in  December  in  Lavaca  Bay  (Indianola), 
and  then  were  transported  in  ox-carts  through  trackless 
and  swampy  areas  into  the  interior.  In  March,  1845,  they 
arrived  at  the  banks  of  the  Comal  River,  where  Solms 
had  bought  one  thousand  acres  of  land  for  the  site  of  a 
city,  after  finding  that  the  land  bought  from  Fischer  was 

1  The  "  Adelsverein  "  was  granted  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  for  every 
male  settler,  and  six  hundred  and  forty  acres  for  every  family  brought  over. 
Retaining  one  half  the  land,  the  organization, *if  well  managed,  could  have 
become  wealthy. 


IN  THE  SOUTHWEST  495 

too  remote.  The  new  city  was  named  New  Braunfels,  in 
honor  of  the  leader.  Each  immigrant  received  a  building- 
lot  of  one  half  an  acre,  besides  ten  acres  in  the  vicinity, 
all  this  indejDendent  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
guaranteed  by  the  company.  The  people  went  zealously  to 
work,  and  a  second  train  of  immigrants  that  followed  were 
also  satisfactorily  located.  But  when  through  neglect  of 
economy  the  funds  of  the  society  had  become  nearly  ex- 
hausted, the  management  proved  altogether  incapable  of 
carrying  forward  the  difficult  undertaking.  The  "  General 
Commissar,"  Solms-Braunfels,  who  had  squandered  much 
of  the  company's  resources,  resigned  and  returned  to 
Europe.  The  colonial  council,  consisting  of  his  advisers, 
was  dissolved.  A  successor  was  appointed.  Von  Meusebach, 
who,  arriving  from  Europe  in  1845,  had  little  experience 
and  no  acquaintance  with  Texas.  He  wisely  economized 
wherever  he  could,  but  thereby  made  enemies,  especially 
among  the  indolent.  In  the  autumn  of  the  year  he  led  an 
expedition  into  the  Indian  country  and  selected  a  site  for 
an  additional  colony,  distant  about  ninety  English  miles, 
or  three  days'  journey  on  horseback,  from  New  Braun- 
fels. This  became  the  city  of  Friedrichsbiirg  (Fredericks- 
burg). 

When  he  returned  he  received  word  that  within  a  short 
time  several  thousand  immigrants  would  arrive  in  Gal- 
veston. He  repaired  thither  to  make  arrangements  for 
their  transportation,  but  when  he  arrived  at  Galveston  he 
found  that  the  directors  of  the  "  Adelsverein  "  had  sent 
over  several  thousands  of  human  beings,  but  not  a  cent 
of  money  for  their  future  sustenance  and  transportation. 
Even  the  money  which  the  immigrants  had  deposited  in 
Germany,  and  which  was  to  be  paid  out  to  them  on  their 
demand,  had  not  arrived.   As  a  result  even  people  who 


496  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

had  been  well-to-do  at  home,  and  thought  they  had  pro- 
vided themselves  with  ample  means,  remained  destitute 
for  months  after  their  arrival,  until  they  could  get  back 
their  money. 

Meusebach  hastened  to  New  Orleans  to  borrow  funds, 
and  the  immigrants  were  gradually  taken  from  Galveston 
to  Indian  Point,  a  harbor  on  Lavaca  Bay,  whence  they 
were  to  be  transported  overland  to  the  place  of  settle- 
ment. We  know  the  facts  concerning  this  ill-fated  immi- 
gration from  the  work  of  Alwin  Sorgel,^  who  was  on 
board  the  Franzisca,  one  of  the  last  ships  to  arrive. 

Their  experiences  on  shipboard  remind  one  of  the  suf- 
ferings of  immigrants  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Their 
experiences  on  land  would  tempt  the  pen  of  a  Balzac.  Of 
the  twenty-five  hundred  passengers,  about  twenty-three 
hundred  landed  at  Galveston.  Fifty  men  were  sent  in  ad- 
vance to  prepare  the  colony  in  the  interior,  while  the  rest 
were  huddled  together  at  Indian  Point,  on  Lavaca  Bay, 
where  under  rudely  constructed  sheds  or  tents,  surrounded 
by  their  chests  and  mounds  of  baggage,  they  were  exposed 
to  the  fevers  and  excesses  of  a  tropical  climate.  Many  a 
man  vainly  sought  for  work  at  Galveston,  and  German 
barons  were  glad  to  push  wheelbarrows  in  the  streets  of 
the  town  to  earn  the  means  of  mere  subsistence.  Money 
could  not  be  had ;  for  that  the  immigrants  were  directed 
to  wait  until  they  got  to  New  Braunfels.  Nothing  could 
be  done  for  the  betterment  of  their  unhappy  condition 
until  the  spring,  and  then  came  swarms  of  mosquitoes  to 
add  to  their  misery  and  increase  their  mortality.  The  evils 

1  A.  H.  Sorgel :  Neueste  Nachrichten  aux  Texas,  sogleich  ein  Hiilferuf  an 
den  Maimer  Verein  zum  Schutze  deutscher  Einwanderer  in  Texas.  (Eisleben, 
1847.)  Cf .  also  :  Ferd.  Romer,  Texas.  Mit  besonderer  Rilcksicht  auf  deutsche 
A  uswanderung  und  die  physischen  Verhaltnisse  des  Landes  nach  eigener  Beo- 
bachtung  geschildert,  (Bonn,  1849.) 


IN  THE   SOUTHWEST  497 

of  the  situation  at  Indian  Point  were  aggravated,  because 
all  means  of  transportation  had  been  requisitioned  by  the 
military  authorities.  The  country  was  on  the  eve  of  the 
war  with  Mexico,  and  forced  preparations  for  the  move- 
ment of  soldiers  and  supplies  interfered  with  contracts 
already  entered  into.  Von  Meusebach  had  had  such  a  con- 
tract with  the  merchants  of  Houston  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  the  entire  body  of  immigrants.  Several  hundreds 
of  the  German  immigrants,  giving  up  all  hope  of  ever 
reaching  New  Braunfels,  formed  a  volunteer  company 
and  joined  the  United  States  army  that  invaded  Mexico. 
Alwin  Sorgel  and  two  companions  were  fortunate  in 
securing  means  of  transportation  and  getting  to  New 
Braunfels.^  There  they  found  that  the  town  had  gone 
backward  since  the  collapse  of  the  association's  treasury. 
The  hostility  of  the  Indians  had  kept  the  settlers  near  to- 
gether and  prevented  their  spreading  out  into  neighbor- 
ing territory.  Harvests  had  not  been  plentiful,  and  many 
of  the  inhabitants,  accustomed  to  receiving  supplies 
from  the  "  Verein,"  had  grown  indolent  and  thriftless. 
Many  would  work  for  a  few  dollars  in  the  service  of  those 
who  stiU  had  a  little  money.  Some  in  their  desperate 
plight,  surrounded  by  disease^  and  ruin,  sought  to  enjoy 
after  their  own  fashion  the  brief  span  of  life  still  left 
them.    Resorting  to  a  wooden   booth  where  there  was 

'  Along  the  way  they  frequently  met  stragglers,  —  one,  for  instance,  a 
German,  who  had  gone  from  Indian  Point  to  seek  employment.  He  had 
left  his  wife  and  children  at  Indian  Point,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  the 
"  Verein "  might  transport  them  to  New  Braunfels.  This  is  an  instance 
among  hundreds  of  the  separation  of  families. 

^  There  was  but  one  physician  in  New  Braunfels,  Dr.  Koster,  and  so 
many  died  under  his  hands  that  the  cemetery  of  the  settlement  was 
called  "Roster's  Plantation."  Whether  this  was  due  to  a  lack  of  skill  on 
his  part  or  to  other  causes  is  not  stated.  He  was  the  physician  of  the 
"  Verein." 


498  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

dancing  every  night,  the  hale  and  the  sick  together 
raved  in  a  dizzy  reel  of  enjoyment  to  the  shrill  music  of  a 
clarionetist,  an  individual  who  was  also  the  professional 
grave-digger  of  the  place.  This  midnight  dance  of  death 
was  the  dreadful  culmination  of  the  sights  the  travelers 
had  witnessed  on  their  way  to  New  Braunfels,  —  human 
bones,  cast-off  pieces  of  clothing,  beds,  tools,  chests  strewn 
along  the  desert  path  between  Indian  Point  and  New 
Braunfels.  But  not  all  the  settlers  went  to  destruction, 
for  the  next  summer,  in  1846,  New  Braunfels^  received 
additions  to  its  population  and  gained  in  stability.  The 
annex,  ninety  miles  north,  called  Friedrichsburg,  also  had 
one  thousand  inhabitants  the  next  winter.  Disease  became 
less  frequent  and  the  harvesting  of  crops  placed  a  pre- 
mium on  work.  As  soon  as  the  colonists  were  made  to 
stand  on  their  own  feet,  the  sturdy  class  prospered  and 
the  idlers  fell  away  like  frost-bitten  leaves  in  autumn. 

Meusebach  had  contributed  much  to  the  welfare  of  the 
colony,  though  his  services  were  not  appreciated.  He  was 
made  the  scapegoat  for  all  the  mismanagement  committed 
by  his  predecessors  and  the  home  office.  At  one  time  a 
mob  appeared  before  his  house  and  threatened  to  kill  him. 
In  spite  of  all  he  maintained  himself  as  head  of  the  col- 
onies until  the  "  Adelsverein "  sold  its  properties.  The 
princes  and  noblemen  of  the  organization  had,  through 
their  incapacity,  brought  untold  sufferings  upon  the  thou- 
sands of  German  settlers  whom  they  had,  by  fair  promises, 
induced  to  immigrate.  The  "  Verein  "  was  no  doubt  well- 
intentioned,  but,  committing  error  after  error,  it  fortun- 

*  New  Braunfels,  at  present  a  prosperous  town  of  a  little  more  than  two 
thousand  inhabitants,  celebrated  its  twenty-fifth  anniversary  in  1870,  making 
the  date  of  foundation  1845.  Fredericksburg  celebrated  its  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  in  1871.  The  latter,  not  so  favorably  located,  has  about  twelve 
hundred  inhabitants. 


IN  THE   SOUTHWEST  499 

ately  came  to  an  end.  The  German  immigration  received 
a  setback  from  the  reports  of  the  mishaps  of  the  Texas 
colonists,  yet  the  check  was  only  temporary. 

After  1848  the  current  of  German  immigration  first 
turned  toward  the  earlier  settlements  already  described, 
and  then  spread  northward  and  westward,  yielding  addi- 
tions also  to  the  population  of  the  principal  towns,  such 
as  San  Antonio,*  Dallas,  Galveston,  Houston,  and  Austin. 
The  entire  country,  almost  without  exception,  in  the  tri- 
angle between  Seguin,  New  Braunfels,  and  San  Antonio 
is  in  the  possession  of  Germans,  who  have  upheld  what 
may  be  called  the  ancient  reputation  of  German  settlers 
in  the  United  States,  that  of  being  the  best  farmers  in 
their  particular  state  and  exemplary  as  law-abiding  and 
patriotic  citizens.  The  census  of  1900  gave  Texas  a  for- 
eign white  population  of  466,651,  of  which  157,214,  or 
thirty-three  and  seven  tenths  per  cent,  were  Germans. 
The  influence  of  the  German  element  in  the  state  is  seen 
also  in  their  representation  in  the  United  States  Con- 
gress at  various  times.  The  most  conspicuous  congressmen 
were  Gustav  Schleicher  and  Eduard  Degener.  Gustav 
Schleicher  was  born  in  Darmstadt,  Germany,  in  1829,  and 
came  to  Texas  about  1847.  With  a  group  of  companions 
he  had  decided  to  build  on  the  Rio  Grande  an  "Icarie," 
after  Cabet's  plan.  Since  there  were  just  forty  young 
comrades,  they  called  themselves  the  "  Vierziger,"  but 
their  existence  as  a  community  was  shortened  through 

*  About  1840  the  population  of  San  Antonio  was  almost  exclusively  Mex- 
ican ;  about  thirty  years  later  its  population  was  about  one  half  German.  Cf. 
Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  p.  282.  In  Kendall  County  are  the  German  set- 
tlements Biirne  and  Comfort  ;  in  Dewitt  County,  Yorktown  ;  High  Hill,  in 
Fayette  County,  was  originally  called  Blum  Hill,  in  honor  of  Robert  Blum, 
lover  of  liberty,  executed  in  Vienna  in  1848.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i, 
p.  349. 


500  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

robbery  by  the  Comanehes  and  deception  practiced  upon 
them  by  speculators.  After  the  colony's  failure  Schleicher 
withdrew  and  became  a  farmer  on  his  own  account.  Sub- 
sequently he  joined  some  other  members  of  his  family  at 
San  Antonio,  and  there  was  engaged  in  the  practice  of 
his  profession  as  engineer.  In  1853  he  was  a  representa- 
tive in  the  state  legislature,  and  six  years  later  a  member 
of  the  state  senate,  where  he  was  noted  for  his  public 
spirit,  his  clear  and  thorough  thinking.  He  opposed  the 
secession  movement  in  1861,  but  when  the  state  decided 
to  join  the  Confederacy,  he  went  with  the  majority.  He 
served  in  the  war,  principally  as  an  engineer,  building 
several  forts,  notably  Fort  Sabine.  In  1874  he  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  United  States  Congress  from  Texas,  and 
was  twice  reelected,  in  1876  and  in  1878.  He  served  on 
some  of  the  most  important  committees,  —  on  railroads, 
foreign  affairs,  and  ways  and  means,  —  and  died  in  office 
in  1879.  Memorial  addresses  by  James  A.  Garfield  and 
Thomas  F.  Bayard  prove  how  deeply  his  loss  was  felt  by 
the  nation.^ 

Eduard  Degener  was  born  in  Brunswick,  Germany,  in 
1809.  He  left  Europe  in  1850  and  traveled  in  the  United 
States  before  settling  in  Texas.  Like  Schleicher,  he  was 
also  for  some  time  a  "  Latin  farmer."  When  the  Civil  War 
broke  out,  Degener  remained  faithful  to  the  Union,  though 
he  incurred  the  danger  of  assassination.  Both  his  oldest 
sons  fell  in  battle  against  a  regiment  of  Confederates,  and 
he  himself  was  taken  as  a  prisoner  to  San  Antonio,  where 
for  some  time  he  languished  in  a  filthy  dungeon  in  an  old 
Mexican  house.  He  was  finally  released  on  the  bail  of  two 
Confederate  friends,  and  became  a  successful  merchant  in 

'  Cf.  Korner,  Das  deutsche  Element  i.  d.  Vereinigten  Staaten  v.  Nordame- 
rika,  1818-1848,  pp.  365-368.  (New  York,  1884.) 


IN  THE  FAR   WEST  501 

San  Antonio.  In  1866  he  was  elected  (reelected,  1868)  a 
member  o£  the  constitutional  convention  of  Texas,  and 
advocated  universal  suffrage  without  distinction  of  race. 
The  Republican  party,  in  1869,  elected  him  a  member  of 
the  United  States  Congress  from  western  Texas. ^ 

(C)   The  Far  West 

The  settlement  of  the  western  highlands  of  the  United 
States  followed  rapidly  after  the  Civil  War,  as  is  seen 
by  the  census  map  already  referred  to.  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  received  the  earliest  immigrations,  native  as 
well  as  foreign.  In  the  other  states  of  the  Far  West  the 
population  centred  about  the  mines,  and  such  other  areas 
where  it  was  possible  for  human  beings  to  exist  and  ac- 
quire wealth.  Germans,  Swiss,  Scandinavians,  and  Men- 
nonites  (mostly  German-Russians),  were  abundant  in  those 
islands  of  population  that  were  scattered  about  on  the 
plains  and  plateaus  of  the  arid  West.  Their  history  does 
not  differ  from  that  of  the  native  pioneers,  and  their 
national  peculiarities  were  almost  immediately  lost  in  the 
types  which  the  frontier  imposed  upon  all  pioneers  alike. 
Miners,  ranchmen,  cow-boys,  hunters,  were  all  similar  in 
appearance  and  habits,  whatever  their  place  of  birth,  espe- 
cially after  some  years  of  residence  on  the  plains.  As  for 
the  Mennonites,  they  kept  together,  forming  large  settle- 
ments in  Kansas,  between  1876  and  1878  ;  entire  com- 
munities of  Mennonites  also  made  Nebraska  their  home. 
These  people  originally  hailed  from  West  Prussia,  and 
migrated  thence  to  Southern  Russia,  where  they  remained 
until  they  heard  of  the  prospects  in  the  great  republic  across 
the  seas.  A  representative  colony  is  that  of  Germania,  on 
the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Sante  Fe  Railroad,  In  the  south- 

^  Deutsch-amerikanisches  Conversations- Lexikon  (Schem),  vol.  iii,  p.  573. 


w  ^ 


502  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

western  part  of  Kansas.  It  is  a  country  of  big  farms, 
where  wheat,  corn,  rye,  and  barley  are  raised  on  farms  of 
from  sixty  to  one  thousand  acres  in  size.  The  Mennonites 
quickly  learned  to  use  American  machinery  and  were  re- 
liable in  the  payment  of  their  debts.  They  also  brought 
fruit-trees  —  e.  g.,  apricots  —  from  Russia.^  In  larger 
cities,  such  as  Leavenworth  and  Topeka,  wherever  the 
Germans  clustered  in  larger  groups,  they  preserved  much 
of  their  nationality.  But  most  of  them  are  scattered  over 
the  state,  and  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  agriculture. 
Even  on  the  frontier  line  farthest  west,  —  that  is,  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  —  the  German  pioneers  arrived  among 
the  earliest.  The  route  to  Oregon,  over  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains to  the  Columbia  River,  by  way  of  the  South  Pass, 
was  known  to  American  pioneers  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark  in 
1804-05  had  opened  the  way,  but  for  a  long  time  no  set- 
tlers followed  thither.  In  1808  the  Missouri  Fur  Company 
sent  some  trapj)ers  and  hunters  into  that  region,  and  three 
years  later  John  Jacob  Astor,  the  leading  merchant  of 
New  York  City,  founded  Astoria,  on  his  own  independ- 
ent means  and  at  his  own   risk.^   Astor's  brilliant  plan 

1  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  x,pp.  147-150  ;  C.  L.  Bernays,  Unter  den 
Mennoniten  in  Kansas. 

^  John  Jacob  Astor  was  born  at  Walldorf,  near  Heidelberg  (Baden),  in 
1763.  His  parents  were  poor  and  he  migrated  first  to  England,  where  he 
had  an  older  brother.  He  came  to  America  after  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  While  on  board  ship  his  attention  was  called  to  the  possibil- 
ities of  the  fur  trade  in  the  colonies,  by  a  fellow  passenger.  Upon  his  arrival 
in  New  York  he  exchanged  the  musical  instruments  he  had  from  his  brother 
for  furs.  These  he  sold  in  London  at  a  good  profit,  and  thus  made  his  start. 
He  was  the  first  regfular  dealer  in  musical  instruments  in  the  United  States. 
He  speculated  in  New  York  real  estate,  and  during  the  war  period  of  1812 
in  government  securities.  In  1809  he  organized  the  American  Fur  Company, 
in  which  he  manifested  rare  enterprise  and  courage,  and  acquired  immense 
wealth.  At  his  death  in  1848  his  fortune  was  estimated  at  the  then  fabu- 


IN  THE   FAR  WEST  503 

was  to  connect  the  fur  trade  of  the  Far  West  by  a  line 
of  trading-posts  extending  from  the  Great  Lakes  along 
the  Missouri  and  Columbia  rivers  to  the  Pacific.  At  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia,  Astor  established  the  new 
trading-post  Astoria,  which  threatened  to  take  the  mono- 
poly of  the  fur  trade  out  of  British  hands.  That  had  been 
the  ambition  of  Astor,  but  during  the  succeeding  war,  in 
1813,  the  British  government  took  possession  of  the  town 
and  named  it  St.  George.  Astoria  was  returned  to  the 
United  States  after  the  conclusion  of  the  War  of  1812,^ 
but  the  American  scheme  had  been  financially  crippled. 

About  1839  began  a  current  of  immigration  to  the 
Oregon  district,  and  the  families  that  had  pushed  the  fron- 
tier line  westward  steadily  from  decade  to  decade  reappeared 
in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  to  found  a  new  state. 
They  were  aided  by  the  foreign  element.  When  the  Cali- 
fornia gold-fever  started,  in  1848,  Oregon  for  several  years 
lost  many  of  its  pioneer  settlers.  Congress  came  to  the 
rescue  with  an  act  by  which  every  male  inhabitant  who 
had  settled  in  Oregon  before  the  first  of  December,  1850, 
should  receive  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  land, 
and  a  similar  amount  for  his  wife ;  each  male  settler  dat- 
ing from  December  1,  1850,  to  December  1,  1853, 
should  receive  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  and  an 
equal  amount  in  addition  if  he  were  married  ;  the  one 
condition  was,  that  the  settler  should  remain  four  years. 
Offering  such  inducements,  Congress  created  for  Oregon 
a  well-to-do,  land-rich  class  of  settlers  who  were  satisfied 

lous  sum  of  820,000,000.  He  founded  the  Astor  Library,  with  the  gift  of 
8400,000. 

*  Cf .  Washington  Irving's  novel,  Astoria,  which  is  descriptive  of  this  ven- 
ture. Irving  was  a  personal  friend  of  Astor,  and  his  regular  guest  in  New 
York  City.  Cf.  also  J.  Parton,  Famous  Americans  of  Recent  Time.  (Boston, 
1867.)  Chapter  on  John  Jacob  Astor. 


504  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

to  remain  permanently  in  the  new  territory.  Portland,  the 
commercial  centre  of  Oregon,  contains  a  large  number 
of  Germans  ;  they  founded  German  newspapers  and  intro- 
duced their  social  life,  their  Turn-,  Gesang-,  and  Schlitzen- 
vereine.  Travelers  describe  them  as  a  frank,  whole-souled, 
respectable,  and  physically  fine-looking  class  of  people. 

In  1853  the  territory  north  of  the  Columbia  River  was 
separated  from  Oregon,  and  called  Washington.  That 
territory  and  the  more  easterly  areas,  Montana  and  the 
Dakotas,  did  not  receive  many  accessions  to  their  popula- 
tion until  the  opening  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Kailroad, 
the  promoter  and  president  of  which  was  a  German,  Henry 
Villard.  He  (Heinrich  Hilgard)  was  born  in  1835  at 
Speyer  (Rhenish  Bavaria),  within  the  borders  of  the  old 
Palatinate.  With  the  advantages  of  a  university  education 
(at  Munich  and  Wiirzburg),  he  came  to  this  country  in 
1853,  and  rapidly  fitted  himself  for  the  career  of  a  jour- 
nalist. He  gained  a  mastery  of  the  English  language,  re- 
ported the  joint  debates  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas  in 
1858,  established  himself  at  Washington  as  the  political 
correspondent  of  leading  Eastern  papers,  and  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War  became  a  prominent  war  corre- 
spondent in  the  field,  continuing  for  three  years.  He 
revisited  Germany  during  the  war  periods  of  1866  and 
1871,  and  returned  as  the  representative  of  the  foreign 
bondholders  of  the  Oregon  and  California  Railroad  Com- 
pany, of  which  he  became  president  in  1875.  With  the 
aid  of  German  capital  he  gained  control  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad,  and,  completing  its  western  extension,  he 
accomplished  the  great  feat  of  creating  a  trunk-line  from 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Pacific.  This  successful  enterprise 
made  him  one  of  the  great  railway  magnates  of  the  coun- 
try until  reverses  overtook  him  in  1883.   He  recovered, 


IN  THE   FAR  WEST  605 

however,  and  regained  control  of  the  Northern  Pacific, 
which  opened  for  settlement  the  great  area  of  the  far 
Northwest,  a  magnificent  addition  to  the  resources  of  the 
American  people/ 

The  founder  of  Seattle,  the  most  important  city  of 
the  state  of  Washington,  was  a  Maryland  German  by  the 
name  of  Yesler.  Henry  L.  Yesler  was  born  in  Leiters- 
burg,^  Maryland,  in  1811.  He  learned  the  trade  of  a  car- 
penter, and  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  followed  the  stream 
westward  to  Ohio,  settling  at  Massillon,  where  he  remained 
from  1832  to  1851.  Industrious  and  shrewd,  he  became 
well-to-do,  and  when  the  boom  struck  the  Pacific  coast, 
he  resolved  to  take  a  look  at  the  country  so  highly  praised. 
He  did  not  take  the  tedious  and  dangerous  route  across 
the  plains,  but  sailed  from  Baltimore  to  Panama,  crossed 
the  Isthmus  and  took  ship  to  California.  He  was  not  in- 
duced to  stay  long  among  the  miners  of  the  gold-lands, 
nor  the  boomers  of  Portland,  Oregon,  but  was  fascinated 
by  accounts  he  heard  concerning  the  region  of  Puget 
Sound.  There,  he  was  told,  was  the  only  real  lumber 
country  in  the  world.  Yesler  determined  to  test  these  re- 
ports, and  after  he  had  arrived  on  the  spot,  his  keen  eye 
convinced  him  that  they  were  true.  There  lay  Alki  Point, 
on  Puget  Sound,  a  lumber  camp,  consisting  of  three  block- 

*  He  became  conspicuous  in  electrical  enterprises,  and  distinguished 
through  his  benefactions,  e.  g.,  his  gifts  to  the  universities  of  Oregon,  Wash- 
ington, and  to  Harvard  ;  also  abroad,  e.  g.,  the  building  of  a  hospital,  and 
training-school  at  Speyer,  an  orphan-asylum  at  Zweibriicken,  the  endowment 
of  an  industrial  institution  at  Kaiserslautern,  and  the  Red  Cross  Hospital  at 
Munich.  He  died  in  1900.  See  National  Cyclopcedia  of  American  Biography, 
vol.  iii,  p.  498. 

^  Leitersburg  received  its  name  from  its  founder,  Jacob  Leiter,  who  was 
born  in  Holland,  settled  first  in  Pennsylvania,  and  then  trekked  to  western 
Maryland.  His  descendants  are  the  grain  merchants  of  Chicago.  Lady  Cur- 
zon  (the  deceased  wife  of  the  Viceroy  of  India)  was  a  lineal  descendant  of 
Jacob  Leiter. 


506  THE   GEEMAN   ELEMENT 

houses,  of  wlaicli  one  was  a  store  and  two  were  taverns. 
A  tribe  of  filthy  Indians,  dwarfed  like  Eskimos,  dwelling 
in  ragged  tents,  would  furnish  cheap  labor.  A  single  acre 
would  yield  scores  of  straight  blocks,  over  a  hundred 
feet  in  length,  five  or  more  feet  in  thickness,  which  in 
the  ship-building  harbors  of  the  world  might  bring  more 
than  a  hundred  dollars  apiece.  Yesler  arrived  in  the 
autumn  of  1852 ;  in  the  summer  of  the  following  year  he 
had  built  a  saw-mill^  about  a  mile  from  Alki  Point,  on 
the  present  site  of  Seattle.  He  availed  himself  of  the  gov- 
ernment grant  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  for  himself 
and  one  hundred  and  sixty  more  for  his  wife.  He  em- 
ployed great  numbers  of  Indians  and  became  their  popular 
patron.  He  built  a  large  cabin  of  rough-hewn  logs,  con- 
taining a  spacious  room  about  twenty-five  feet  square,  which 
became  the  centre  of  the  life  of  the  settlement.  It  served 
as  a  sort  of  commons,^  a  resort  for  the  wood-choppers,  a 
place  where  King  Seattle  held  his  palavers,  as  town-hall, 
jail,  and  church.  Just  as  quickly  as  the  trees  were  felled 
on  his  land,  Yesler  laid  out  the  ground  in  building-lots 
and  attracted  settlers.  A  boom  struck  the  place,  Yesler 
brought  his  family  from  Ohio,  and  permanent  settlers 
arrived  in  great  numbers.  Yesler  grew  very  rich,  and  so 
did  those  about  him.  A  large  saw-mill  was  soon  located  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  Sound,  and  in  spite  of  frequent 
destructive  fires  the  foundations  were  securely  laid  for 
a  great  lumber  and  manufacturing  centre.  Yesler  was  the 

1  Yesler's  was  the  first  of  the  saw-mills  put  up  with  the  design  to  establish 
a  trade  with  San  Francisco.  Cf .  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Works,  vol.  xxxi,  History  of 
Washington,  Idaho,  and  Montana,  lSJi5-18S9,  p.  24. 

^  Yesler's  "  cook-house,"  as  it  was  called,  was  for  a  number  of  years  the 
only  place  along  the  east  shore  of  the  Sound  where  comfortable  entertain- 
ment could  be  had.  There  were  many  regrets  when  it  was  replaced  by  a 
modern  structure;  it  had  served  as  town-hall,  court-house,  jail,  military  head- 
quarters, storehouse,  hotel,  and  church.  Bancroft,  supra,  pp.  24-25. 


IN  THE   FAR   WEST  507 

mayor  of  Seattle,  and  a  leading  citizen  for  many  years, 
and  during  the  Indian  troubles  in  the  sixties  was  instru- 
mental in  keeping  the  Indians  of  Washington  Territory 
at  peace/ 

California 

A  direct  path  to  California  was  not  known  until  Fre- 
mont's exploring  party,  returning  from  Oregon  in  the 
winter  of  1843,  lost  their  way  in  the  great  desert  between 
the  Sierra  Nevada  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Fremont 
was  forced  to  try  the  passes  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Moun- 
tains without  guides,  and  in  March,  1844,  reached  Sutter's 
fort  on  the  Sacramento  River,  in  time  to  save  his  men. 
Cajjtain  John  A.  Sutter^  was  one  of  the  most  adventurous 
and  resourceful  characters  in  the  history  of  the  Far  West, 
and  at  one  time  he  was  the  richest  man  in  California. 
Born  in  the  Grand-Duchy  of  Baden  in  1803,  trained  in  a 
Swiss  military  academy,  his  bold  spirit  brought  him  (in 
1834)  to  the  western  part  of  the  United  States,  where  for 
some  years  he  carried  on  a  caravan  trade  between  St. 
Louis  and  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico.  He  journeyed  with 
a  party  of  trappers,  in  1838,  to  Vancouver.  After  many 
adventures,  such  as  his  trips  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to 
Alaska,  and  cruises  along  the  Pacific  coast,  he  was  driven 
into  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  by  storms.  He  had  long 
cherished  the  desire  to  penetrate  California,  concerning 
which  he  had  heard  so  much  from  the  Indians  during  his 
inland  expeditions.  He  succeeded  in  reaching  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  present  Sacramento,  and  there  founded 
a  settlement  which  he  called  New  Helvetia.  From  Alva- 

*  Cf.  A.  E.  Schade,  "  Denkscbrift  iiber  H.  L.  Yesler,"  Seventh  Annual 
Report  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland,  pp.  29-35. 
(1892.) 

^  Cf.  Kiirner,  pp.  295-298  ;  Eickhoff,  pp.  388-389. 


508  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

rado,  the  Mexican  governor  of  Alta  California,  he  re- 
ceived the  right  of  citizenship  and  the  title  to  his  land, 
and  was  made  a  governor  of  the  northern  frontier  terri- 
tory of  Mexico.  Such  he  was  when  Fremont  found  him. 
In  1845  Sutter  received  in  addition  the  magnificent  gift 
of  the  Sobrante  grant  for  services  rendered  in  the  Castro 
insurrection. 

After  California  was  made  a  part  of  the  United  States, 
Sutter  was  appointed  alcalde  or  justice  of  his  district,  and 
Indian  agent.  His  estate  was  now  in  a  very  prosperous 
condition ;  great  areas  of  wheat  were  planted  and  numer- 
ous droves  of  cattle  were  pastured  on  his  land.  The  pro- 
spects for  himself  and  his  colony  were  unparalleled,  and 
he  was  accounted  the  richest  man  in  the  state.  But  for- 
tune was  all  too  generous ;  she  had  lavishly  strewn  gold 
upon  his  princely  possessions.  It  was  on  the  twentieth  of 
January,  1848,  when  Jacob  W.  Marshall,  employed  by 
Sutter  as  overseer  of  a  saw-mill,  appeared  with  the  start- 
ling news  that  he  had  discovered  gold  in  the  river  sand. 
Chemical  experts  proved  the  truth  of  his  statement.  For 
Sutter  this  seemingly  brilliant  stroke  of  fortune  proved 
the  beginning  of  his  ruin.  In  self-defense  he  tried  to  keep 
the  secret  from  the  public  for  a  short  time  only,  until  he 
might  gather  in  his  crops  and  his  cattle,  but  in  vain.  Gold- 
seekers,  hordes  of  adventurers,  and  desperate  characters, 
crowded  upon  his  property.  They  trampled  down  his  crops, 
devoured  his  cattle,  and  devastated  his  land.  Even  the 
titles  to  his  estates  were  then  disputed,  and  from  the  sum- 
mit of  his  fortune  Sutter  was  cast  down  to  the  humiliation 
of  seeking  redress  for  his  wrongs.  Although  he  appealed 
for  justice  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  he  never 
regained  possession  of  his  property.  The  state  of  Califor- 
nia voted  him  a  pension  of  three  thousand  dollars  annu- 


IN  THE  FAE  WEST  609 

ally  during  the  years  1865  to  1872,  in  view  of  state  taxes 
wliicli  be  had  paid  on  the  lands  now  no  longer  in  his 
hands.  Honors  of  various  kinds  bestowed  upon  him,  such 
as  his  appointment  as  general  of  the  militia  of  California, 
showed  nevertheless  a  general  recognition  of  his  promin- 
ent services.  Sutter  was,  in  reality,  directly  responsible 
for  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California.  It  was  he  who 
planned  and  built  the  saw-mill  which  occasioned  Mar- 
shall's discovery.  The  discovery  was  made  inevitable, 
sooner  or  later,  by  the  industries  established  by  Sutter. 
Although  Marshall  was  the  first  to  see  the  gold,  a  larger 
amount  of  credit  belongs  to  the  man  who  prepared  the 
way,  the  pioneer  who  laid  the  foundation  for  the  wealth 
of  thousands  of  people,  and  thereby  became  poor. 

Besides  furnishing  a  quota  of  gold-seekers,  the  Ger- 
man element  contributed  very  largely  toward  promoting 
the  wine  industry  in  California.^  In  the  Sonoma  Valley 
most  of  the  wine-ranches  have  German  names.  The  pio- 
neers, in  1858,  were  Gundlach  and  Dresel,  who  estab- 
lished the  "  Rhine  Farm,"  now  owned  by  the  Gundlach- 
Bundschu  Wine  Company  of  San  Francisco.  In  Napa 
County  Charles  Krug  was  the  pioneer,  also  beginning 
in  1858,  at  St.  Helena.  John  Rock  came  to  California  in 
1866  and  founded  the  Rock  Nurseries,  and  later  the  Cal- 
ifornia Nurseries  covering  over  five  hundred  acres,  at 
Niles,  Alameda  County.  William  Palmtag,  of  Hollister, 
planted  vineyards  in   San  Benito  County ;  the  Eggers 

1  The  German  influence  upon  viniculture  in  California  will  be  treated  in 
Volume  II,  Chapter  ii,  of  this  work.  The  materials  (unpublished)  were 
collected  recently  by  Professor  E.  W.  Hilgard  (founder  of  the  Experiment 
Station,  and  for  many  years  director  of  the  College  of  Agriculture,  Uni- 
versity of  California),  and  Mr.  Charles  Bundschu,  of  San  Francisco,  at  the 
request  of  the  writer.  Professor  Hilgard  and  Mr.  Bundschu  are  continuing 
their  investigations  and  expect  to  publish  their  researches  in  a  special  mono- 
graph. 


510  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Vineyard  Company  (now  sold  to  the  Great  Western 
Vineyards  Company)  had  locations  in  both  Fresno  and 
Kern  counties.  In  Fresno  County  Frederick  Roeding  es- 
tablished the  Francher  Creek  Nurseries,  continued  by  his 
son  George  C.  Roeding,  who  has  also  contributed  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  fig  and  other  fruit  trees.  One  of  the 
finest  plantations,  growing  the  orange,  lemon,  and  grape, 
near  the  Mission  San  Gabriel,  belonged  at  one  time  to  the 
German  Rose.^ 

Los  Angeles  contains  a  large  German  population,  as 
do  the  cities  of  San  Bernardino,  San  Diego,  and  Santa 
Barbara.  The  town  of  Anaheim,  twenty-eight  miles  from 
Los  Angeles,  was  founded  by  Germans.  Stockton,  San 
Joachin  County,  the  location  of  the  Stockton  Mining 
Company,  was  founded  by  Karl  M.  Weber.^  San  Francisco 
has  always  had  a  very  large  German  population ;  in  fact 
it  owes  a  large  part  of  its  prosperity  to  such  men  as  James 
Lick  (born  in  Pennsylvania  of  German  parents,  whose 
family  name  was  originally  Liick),  best  known  as  the 
founder  of  the  Lick  Observatory ;  Adolph  Sutro  (born  in 
Rhenish  Prussia),  the  great  mining  engineer  and  phil- 
anthropist ;  and  Claus  Spreckels  (born  in  Hannover),  the 
sugar-king,  founder  of  the  Pacific  steamship  lines  and  of 
the  trade  with  the  Sandwich  Islands.^  To  the  prominent 
San  Francisco  Germans  belong  also  Henry  Miller  (born 
in  Wiirtemberg),  the  cattle-king,  and  his  partner,  Charles 
Lux  (born  in  Baden).  In  1857  they  started  a  slaughter- 
house in  San  Francisco,  and  soon  gained  control  of  the 
fresh-meat  supply  of  the  city.  They  acquired  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  of  land  in  California,  besides  other 

'  Cf.  Eickhoif,  In  der  neuen  Heimat,  p.  390. 
*  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  73-75. 

'  A  more  detailed  account  of  the  life-work  of  these  men  will  be  given  in 
Volume  II,  Chapter  ni. 


IN   THE   FAR   WEST  511 

lands  in  Oregon  and  Nevada,  and  at  one  time  owned 
eighty  thousand  head  of  cattle  and  one  hundred  thousand 
sheep.  They  were  able  to  drive  their  herds  from  neigh- 
boring states  to  San  Francisco  practically  on  their  own 
land,  sheltering  them  overnight,  or  for  convenient  periods, 
in  their  own  large  ranch  stations,  and  keeping  up  a  per- 
petual chain  of  supply  for  the  city  and  trade.  When 
Charles  Lux  died,  in  1887,  a  powerful  syndicate  was 
formed  under  the  leadership  of  Henry  Miller,  who  (though 
born  in  1828)  has  ever  kept  up  the  keenest  interest  in  the 
management  of  the  details  of  his  vast  possessions.  The 
Germans  of  San  Francisco  have  always  exhibited  an  in- 
clination to  keep  up  German  traditions,  as,  for  instance, 
in  1870,  when  they  contributed  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  to  the  Red  Cross  Fund  collected  in  the 
United  States  for  the  benefit  of  German  soldiers  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War. 

By  the  summing-up  of  these  numerous  instances,  the 
present  chapter  intended  to  show  that  Germans  were  con- 
spicuous in  the  early  settlement  and  the  development  of 
the  resources  of  the  Northwest,  the  Southwest,  and  the 
Far  West.  They  followed  the  frontier  line  until  it  disap- 
peared from  the  map,  but  settled  most  thickly  in  the  dis- 
trict included  in  the  North  Central  Division,  particularly 
the  states  of  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
Iowa,  and  Missouri. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    GERMAN    ELEMENT    IN    THE    WARS    OF     THE     UNITED 
STATES    DURING    THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

Germaus  in  the  War  of  1812  :  Walbach,  Strieker,  Armistead  —  Indian 
wars  :  Heilman  and  Custer  —  War  with  Mexico  :  Kemper,  Kautz,  and 
John  A.  Quitman  (governor  of  Mississippi). 

The  Civil  War  —  Statistics  of  the  numbers  of  German  volunteers  compared 
with  those  of  other  nationalities  —  200,000  volunteers  —  German  regi- 
ments —  The  influence  of  the  Germans  in  St.  Louis  and  Missouri  ;  the 
Turners,  the  Arsenal,  Camp  Jackson,  Sigel's  campaign,  etc.  —  The 
Eleventh  Corps  at  Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg,  Lookout  Mountain,  etc., 
Missionary  Ridge  —  German  officers  :  Sigel,  Hecker,  Blenker,  Willich, 
Schurz,  Steinwehr,  Kautz,  etc.  —  Engineers  and  artillerymen  —  German 
West  Point  graduates  —  Germans  on  the  Confederate  side  —  Germany's 
friendly  attitude  during  the  Civil  War. 

The  Spanish  War  — German  volunteers  in  army  and  navy  —  List  of  ofiBcers 
—  Distinguished  service  of  Rear-Admirals  Schley,  Kautz,  and  Kempff. 

If  in  the  wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  German  ele- 
ment rendered  conspicuous  service,  their  share  was  more 
than  doubled  in  the  wars  of  the  United  States  during  the 
nineteenth  century.  Beginning  with  the  War  of  1812, 
and  ending  with  the  Spanish  War,  the  German  element 
was  represented  by  large  numbers  in  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  American  armies,  and  quite  as  abundantly  and 
more  gloriously  in  the  lists  of  officers  who  excelled  by 
superior  training.  In  the  Mexican  and  the  numerous  In- 
dian wars  throughout  the  century,  there  was  no  campaign 
without  its  quota  of  German  participants.  In  the  Civil 
War  the  large  element  of  brave  and  sturdy  German  sol- 
diers in  the  Northern  army  constituted  an  invaluable  and 
indispensable  instrument  in  turning  the  fortune  of  war 
in  favor  of  the  Union.  Soldiers  by  tens  and  hundreds  of 


IN   THE   WAR   OF   1812  513 

thousands  who  performed  their  duties  faithfully,  even  to 
the  point  of  laying  down  their  lives  for  the  country  of 
their  adoption,  must  be  passed  by  unnoticed  in  the  follow- 
ing brief  narrative.  Only  the  most  striking  figures  and 
noblest  achievements  of  the  men  of  German  blood  can  be 
taken  into  account. 

In  the  War  of  1812,  when  the  land  forces  of  the 
United  States  almost  invariably  met  with  defeat  and  dis- 
grace, a  few  brilliant  feats  were  contributed  by  soldiers  of 
German  blood.  Thus  General  Walbach  is  credited  with  sav- 
ing the  artillery  at  Chrystler's  Field  ^  (St.  Lawrence  River), 
in  1813.  Walbach^  had  come  to  the  United  States  after  a 
distinguished  career  of  service  in  the  French,  the  Austrian, 
and  the  British  (West  Indian)  service.  He  was  born  in 
Miinster  (Upper  Rhine),  Germany,  in  1766.  He  came  to 
America  in  1798,  and  entered  the  American  military  serv- 
ice, being  promoted  after  the  battle  of  Chrystler's  Field  to 
the  rank  of  colonel,  and  subsequently  to  that  of  brigadier- 
general,  and  commander  of  the  Fourth  Artillery,  U.  S.  A. 

When  the  British  army,  after  their  victory  at  Bladens- 
burg  and  their  burning  of  Washington,  attempted  to 
serve  Baltimore  in  a  similar  way,  they  met  with  resistance. 
General  John  Strieker^  was  put  in  command  of  a  brigade 

'  General  Wilkinson,  with  the  main  body  of  the  American  army,  there 
fought  with  a  slightly  superior  force  of  the  British.  The  battle  lasted  five 
hours,  victory  alternately  favoring  one  and  then  the  other.  Night  ended  the 
conflict,  with  the  British  in  possession  of  the  field.  The  American  loss  was 
especially  severe  ;  many  of  the  bravest  officers  were  killed  or  wounded. 
The  total  American  loss  was  339  ;  the  British,  187.  Encr/dopcedic  Dictionary 
of  American  Reference,  vol.  i,  p.  146. 

2  He  was  the  third  son  of  Count  Joseph  de  Barth  and  Marie  Therese  de 
Rohmer.  Cf.  Rosengarten,  The  German  Soldier  in  the  .Wars  of  the  United 
States,  pp.  160-165.  General  Walbach's  son  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point 
and  a  captain  of  ordnance.  Another  son  died  of  fever  in  the  United  States 
Navy.  A  grandson  served  as  a  surgeon  in  the  United  States  Army. 

^  General  John  Strieker  was  the  son  of  Colonel  George  Strieker,  of  Revo- 


514  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

which  was  sent  forward  to  check  the  enemy's  advance, 
and  the  battle  of  North  Point  followed,  September  12, 
1814.  Although  the  British  right  put  the  American  left  to 
flight  and  caused  the  retreat  of  the  American  army,  still 
the  British  forces  had  received  a  check  keenly  felt.  When 
General  Ross,  the  British  commander,  was  killed  by  sharp- 
shooters on  his  advance  toward  Baltimore,  the  beginning 
was  made  for  a  British  defeat.  The  repulse  came  before 
Fort  McHenry,  where  Admiral  Cochrane,  with  sixteen 
war-vessels,  opened  a  bombardment  of  the  fort.  The  guns 
of  Fort  McHenry  failed  to  reach  the  fleet  until  some  of 
the  British  vessels  ran  nearer.  These  were  so  fiercely  re- 
ceived that  they  withdrew,  suffering  much  damage.  The 
American  commander  was  Major  Armistead,  a  German- 
Virginian,  who  held  the  fort  with  a  garrison  of  one  thou- 
sand men,  and  also  defeated  a  British  force  of  about  the 
same  number  who  landed  to  surprise  the  fort  in  the  rear. 
The  bombardment  continued  until  midnight,^  and  next 
day  the  British  withdrew.  Baltimore,  which  so  early  in 
her  history  had  been  settled  by  Germans,  was  thus  saved 
from  the  British  by  German- American  commanders.  Major 
George  Armistead  (also  spelled  Armistaedt  or  Armstiidt) 
was  born  April  10,  1780,  at  New  Market,  Virginia,  where 

lutionary  fame,  and  was  born  in  Frederick,  Maryland,  in  1759.  His  mother's 
name  was  Springer  (German).  The  son  served  as  a  cadet  in  Captain  G.  P. 
Keeport's  company,  in  the  German  battalion,  of  which  his  father  was  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. The  cadet  was  in  the  battles  of  Trenton,  Princeton,  Brandy- 
wine,  Germantown,  Monmouth,  and  others,  and  accompanied  General  Sulli- 
van in  his  expedition  against  the  Indians.  In  1783  Captain  Strieker  came  to 
Baltimore,  associated  himself  in  business  with  Commodore  Barney,  took  a 
keen  interest  in  the  formation  of  the  militia,  and  formed  and  trained  one  of  the 
earliest  commands  i;i  Baltimore.  He  was  soon  made  brigadier-general  and 
commander  of  the  state  troops.  Cf.  Sixth  An7iual  Report  of  the  Society  for 
the  History  of  the  Germans  in  Maryland,  pp.  47-48. 

1  It  was  during  this  night  that  Francis  S.  Key,  while  a  prisoner  on  board 
a  British  ship,  wrote  the  "  Star  Spangled  Bauner." 


IN   THE   WAR   OF   1812  515 

his  ancestors  had  settled,  coming  originally  from  Hessen- 
Darmstadt.  Five  of  his  brothers  served  in  the  army  dur- 
ing the  War  of  1812,  three  with  the  regulars  and  two 
with  the  militia.  In  1813  George  Armistead  was  promoted 
to  the  rank  of  major  of  the  Third  Artillery.  He  distin- 
guished himself  at  the  capture  of  Fort  George  (at  the 
mouth  of  the  Niagara  River),  and  after  his  brilliant  de- 
fense of  Fort  McHenry  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  lieuten- 
ant-colonel.^ 

The  Germans  of  Baltimore,  in  the  War  of  1812,  put 
a  full  company  of  yagers  into  the  field.  The  Pennsylvania 
Germans,  as  in  the  Revolution,  again  did  their  full  share, 
several  Pennsylvania-German  families  making  distin- 
guished war  records.  The  Pennypacker  war  record  is 
notable.  During  the  Revolution  this  family  had  as  its 
representatives  in  the  Continental  Army  a  captain,  an  en- 
sign, a  lieutenant,  a  corporal,  and  a  private.  In  the  War 
of  1812  it  had  two  of  its  members  in  the  field;  in  the 
Mexican  War,  three,  one  of  whom.  General  Pennypacker, 
was  a  member  of  the  staff  of  General  Worth. ^  The  an- 

^  One  of  his  brothers,  Walter  Keith  Armistead,  born  in  1785,  was  engineer 
and  superintendent  of  the  fortifications  at  Norfolk,  Virginia,  and  was  ap- 
pointed director-general.  The  Armistead  family  is  distinguished  in  Virginia 
history.  The  mother  of  President  John  Tyler  was  a  daughter  of  Robert 
Armistead,  whose  grandfather  had  come  from  Hessen-Darmstadt.  Schuricht, 
History  of  the  German  Element  in  Virginia,  vol.  ii,  p.  22.  From  a  letter  of  Mrs. 
Letitia  Tyler  Semple,  addressed  to  the  Honorable  George  G.  Vest,  U.  S. 
Senator  of  Missouri,  and  dated  Louisenheim,  Washington,  D.  C,  April  20, 
1897,  we  learn  the  interesting  fact  that  the  Armstadts  or  Armisteads  were 
relatives  of  four  presidents  of  the  United  States.  Mrs.  Semple,  the  daughter 
of  President  Tyler,  and  during  his  term  "  first  lady  of  the  land,"  writes  : 
"James  Monroe,  William  Henry  Harrison,  John  Tyler,  and  Benjamin 
Harrison  are  cousins,  being  related  with  the  Armisteads  and  Tylers  of  Vir- 
ginia." 

*  In  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  it  furnished  to  the  Northern  army  two 
major-generals,  one  adjutant,  one  colonel,  one  surgeon,  one  assistant  surgeon, 
two  captains,  one  lieutenant,  five  sergeants,  eight  corporals,  one  musician, 


516  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

cestor  of  the  family  was  Heinrich  Pennypacker,  who  came 
to  America  from  Germany  before  1699  and  settled  on 
Skippack  Creek.  The  Muhlenberg  family,  so  distinguished 
throuo-h  its  founder  and  his  sons,  had  no  less  than  six 
representatives  on  the  registers  of  the  regular  army  dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century.  Frederick  Hambright,  a 
Pennsylvania  German,  was  a  major-general  of  mihtia  in 
the  War  of  1812,  and  his  brother  George  a  colonel  at 
the  same  time.  The  latter  served  also  in  the  Mexican 
War  and  in  the  Rebellion.  The  same  name  occurs  as  that 
of  an  ofhcer  who  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  King's 
Mountain  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  Colonel  Ham- 
bright  was  in  command  of  the  North  Carolina  Germans, 
and  though  wounded  in  the  battle  continued  fighting  and 
helped  to  win  the  victory. 

During  the  Indian  wars  of  the  nineteenth  century  Ger- 
man officers  and  enlisted  men  have  always  been  numerous 
in  the  American  armies.  An  authoritative  statement^  on 
this  point  is  as  follows :  "  From  the  beginning  of  our 
history  it  often  proved  difficult  to  get  the  best  type  of 
native  American  to  go  into  the  regular  army  save  in  time 
of  war  with  a  powerful  enemy,  for  the  low  rate  of  pay  was 
not  attractive,  while  the  disciplined  subordination  of  the 
soldiers  to  their  officers  seemed  irksome  to  people  with  an 
exaggerated  idea  of  individual  freedom  and  no  proper 
conception  of  the  value  of  obedience.  Very  many  of  the 
regular  soldiers  have  always  been  of  foreign  birth ;  and 
in  1787,  on  the  Ohio,  the  percentage  of  Irish  and  Ger- 
mans in  the  ranks  was  probably  fully  as  large  as  it  was 
on  the  Great  Plains  a  century  later." 

and  sixty-five  privates.  It  also  furnished  some  officers  and  men  to  the  South- 
ern army.  Cf.  Rosengarten,  p.  207. 

1  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  iii,  pp.  282-283. 


IN   THE   INDIAN  WARS  517 

The  presentation  of  lists  of  German  names  found  upon 
the  rolls  of  our  Indian  campaigns  would  be  uninteresting. 
It  will  suffice  to  give  two  examples  of  officers  who  sacri- 
ficed their  lives  in  the  Indian  wars  for  the  cause  of  Amer- 
ican civilization.  Julius  F.  Heilman,  one  of  the  early 
graduates  of  West  Point,  fell  in  Florida,  in  1836.  He 
had  risen  to  the  rank  of  major  of  the  Second  Artillery, 
and  was  the  son  of  a  surgeon  in  Riedesel's  Hessian  Bri- 
gade, which  was  captured  with  the  army  of  Burgoyne. 
Few  would  detect  in  the  name  Custer  the  German 
Kiister,  though  it  is  a  fact  that  the  ancestor  of  General 
George  A.  Custer,  the  great  Indian  fighter,  was  a  Hessian 
soldier  paroled  in  1778  after  Burgoyne's  surrender.  He 
settled  in  Pennsylvania  and  changed  his  name  Kiister  to 
Custer,  which  was  easier  for  his  English  neighbors  to  pro- 
nounce. Perhaps  also  he  attempted  thereby  to  remove  the 
stigma  attaching  to  a  Hessian,  so  offensive  then  to  Amer- 
ican sensibilities.  The  father  of  General  Custer,  born  in 
Maryland  in  1806,  later  removed  to  Ohio.  The  son,  born 
in  1839,  was  sent  to  West  Point,  graduated  in  1861, 
served  with  distinction  in  the  Civil  War  as  captain  on 
the  staff  of  General  McClellan,  and  was  appointed  briga- 
dier-general for  his  gallantry  in  the  battle  of  Aldie,  in 
Virginia.  General  George  A.  Custer  was  especially  dis- 
tinguished as  a  leader  of  cavalry.  At  the  battle  of  Gettys- 
burg he  won  fame  as  the  commander  of  the  Michigan 
Brigade,  and  likewise  made  a  glorious  record  at  Winches- 
ter, Fisher's  Hill,  Cedar  Creek,  Waynesboro,  Five  Forks, 
and  Dinwiddle  Court  House.  Subsequently,  as  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  Seventh  Cavalry,  he  served  under  General 
Hancock  in  a  series  of  campaigns  against  the  Indians. 
On  June  26,  1876,  Custer,  with  two  hundred  regulars, 
was  sent  in  search  of  a  band  of  Sioux  Indians  that  had 


518  THE   GERMAN   ELE:MENT 

broken  away  from  their  Dakota  reservation  and  were 
committing  many  depreciations.  Custer  came  suddenly 
upon  the  Indians,  twenty-live  hundred  strong,  commanded 
by  their  chief,  Sitting  Bull.  It  was  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Little  Big  Horn.  There  was  no  chance  to  escape  and 
a  desperate  battle  ensued,  in  which  Custer  and  his  brave 
soldiers  were  massacred  to  the  last  man,  making  their 
enemies  pay  dearly,  however,  for  their  lives.  A  monument 
has  been  erected  upon  the  site  of  the  battle.' 

The  3Iexican  War 

In  the  war  with  Mexico,  1846-47,  the  Germans  were 
among  the  first  volunteers.  They  submitted  instantly  to 
the  authority  of  the  government  while  the  native  element 
were  still  discussing  the  justice  of  the  war.  The  German's 
innate  respect  for  constituted  authority  allowed  him  to 
ask  no  questions,  though  he  felt  no  sympathy  for  the 
slave  party  which  would  eventually  become  the  gainer 
through  the  war.  After  the  war  was  over,  the  Germans 
were  again  opponents  of  slavery.  In  St.  Louis  the  first 
volunteers  were  Germans,  and  the  German  sections  of 
Missouri,  such  as  St.  Charles  and  Hermann,  sent  a  good 
percentage  of  their  numbers.  In  Kentucky  the  first  com- 
pany for  service  was  raised  by  a  German.  In  New  Orleans 
six  hundred  Germans  volunteered.  In  Cincinnati  the  first 
regiment  organized  was  German."  Many  of  the  cavalry 
and  artillery  companies  from  Texas  and  Missouri  were 
composed  of  German  volunteers.  Kentucky  had  a  com- 
pany of  cavalry  and  a  regiment  of  infantry  that  were 
German.  The  town  of  Belleville,  Illinois,  raised  a  German 
company  under  the  command  of  J.  C.  Raith  and  Adolph 

•  Encyclopizdic  Dictionary  of  American  Reference,  vol.  i,  p.  198. 

*  Rosengarteu,  p.  266. 


IN  THE  MEXICAN  WAR  519 

Engelmann.  The  German  Virginian,  James  Lawson 
Kemper  (governor  o£  Virginia,  1873-78),  was  a  captain 
of  volunteers  in  the  Mexican  War.  Louis  A.  Armistead 
(who  later  commanded  a  brigade  in  Pickett's  Division  at 
Gettysburg)  distinguished  himself  in  the  Mexican  War. 

A  number  of  Germans,  trained  abroad,  served  in  the 
Mexican  War,  among  them  Captain  Henry  Koch,  born 
in  Bayreuth.  In  1832  he  arrived  in  America  and  estab- 
lished a  colony  of  communists  in  Clayton  County,  Iowa. 
More  noteworthy  was  General  August  V.  Kautz,  born  in 
Baden  in  1828.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Mexican  War, 
he  enlisted  in  the  First  Iowa  Regiment,  and  in  reward 
for  his  services  was  appointed  a  lieutenant  in  the  regular 
army.  In  the  Civil  War  he  was  noted  for  his  cavalry  raids 
in  southern  Virginia,  in  1864.  Similarly  Samuel  P.  Heintz- 
elman  (graduate  of  West  Point)  served  as  a  captain  in  the 
Mexican  War,  which  fitted  him  for  greater  achievements 
in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.^ 

The  most  dashing  and  imposing  figure,  however,  among 
all  the  soldiers  of  German  blood  in  the  Mexican  War  was 
John  A.  Quitman.  His  brilliant  career  and  commanding 
personality  furnish  a  good  example  of  how  environment 
creates  new  types  on  the  American  soil.  Few  historians 
of  American  history  have  observed  that  General  Quitman, 
subsequently  governor  of  Mississippi,  was  the  son  of  a 
Lutheran  pastor.  Dr.  Quitman,  who  settled  first  in  Scho- 
harie and  then  for  twenty-five  years  was  the  Lutheran 
minister  at  Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson.  There  it  was  that 
his  son  John  Anthony  was  born.  The  latter  did  not  follow 
his  father's  profession,  but  became  a  teacher,  then  studied 

'  He  held  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  at  Alexandria,  Bull  Run,  Union- 
town,  Hamburg,  and  Fair  Oaks,  and  in  1803  commanded  the  Northern  De- 
partment. He  was  retired  in  1801  with  full  rank  of  major-general,  United 
States  Army. 


520  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

law,  and  thereupon  migrated  to  Ohio.  In  1821  he  followed 
the  current  of  enterprise  toward  the  Southwest,  settling 
down  at  Natchez,  Mississij)pi.  There  he  soon  established 
an  excellent  law  practice,  married  the  daughter  of  a 
wealthy  planter,  and  became  a  man  of  note.  His  person- 
ality harmonized  with  his  surroundings.  He  was  an  elo- 
quent speaker,  an  athlete  of  prodigious  strength,  and  a 
capital  shot.  In  a  trial  of  skill  he  defeated  John  Hawkins, 
a  crack  marksman  and  owner  of  the  famous  rifle  "Brown 
Bess."  Hawkins,  a  veteran  frontiersman,  was  ready  to 
allow  his  opponent,  Quitman,  a  handicap,  but  the  latter 
refused  it,  and  defeated  the  would-be  champion  on  three 
separate  trials.  Hawkins  was  at  first  chagrined,  but  after- 
wards became  a  fast  friend  of  Quitman. 

The  popular  lawyer  and  planter  entered  politics  and  be- 
came president  of  the  Mississippi  state  senate.  In  1836, 
when  Santa  Anna  led  an  army  into  Texas,  Quitman,  having 
organized  a  body  of  recruits,  had  a  secret  understanding 
with  General  Houston.  He  quietly  crossed  the  Sabine 
River,  but,  on  arriving  at  St.  Augustine,  found  himself 
face  to  face  with  many  of  the  gamblers,  murderers,  and 
the  lawless  element  which,  when  commander  of  the  state 
militia,  he  had  banished  from  Natchez.  One  of  the  de- 
speradoes drew  a  dagger  on  him  while  he  was  lying  on 
his  couch.  But  Quitman,  who  was  only  pretending  to  be 
asleep,  "  got  the  drop  on  him  "  with  his  pistol  and  the 
desperado  withdrew,  saying :  "  Captain,  you  are  a  brave 
comrade;  I  will  be  your  friend."  With  this  comradeship 
the  trouble  with  the  gamblers  ceased.  When  Quitman's 
contingent  arrived  at  the  camp  of  General  Houston,  the 
battle  of  San  Jacinto  had  just  been  fought,  and  the  Mex- 
ican invasion  was  therewith  ended.  This  expedition  cost 
Major  Quitman  a  private  outlay  of  more  than  ten  thou- 


JOHN  A.    QUITMAN 


IN   THE   MEXICAN  WAR  521 

sand  dollars.  On  his  return  he  was  active  in  finance  and 
politics.  When  the  Mexican  War  broke  out  he  was  made 
a  brigadier-general.  He  was  in  command  of  a  brigade  at 
Monterey,  and  was  one  of  the  most  daring  of  the  fighting 
generals  under  Taylor.  With  General  Worth  he  shared 
the  honors  of  the  attack  on  Monterey.  He  was  sent  with 
the  forces  that  went  to  support  General  Scott,  and  led  the 
assault  on  Vera  Cruz.  He  commanded  at  Alvarado,  and 
stormed  Chapultepec.  The  storming  of  the  latter  fort, 
which  was  well  defended,  was  decidedly  his  victory.  The 
subsequent  attack  on  the  Belen  Gate  before  Mexico  he 
carried  out  successfully  in  person.  The  evacuation  of 
the  city  occurred  at  night;  next  morning  General  Quit- 
man was  the  first  to  enter  the  Grand  Plaza  of  the  City  of 
Mexico.  The  entry  of  the  American  army  was  not  a  dress- 
parade.  The  American  troops  were  exhausted,  tattered, 
and  soiled.  Many  were  wounded  and  but  half-clothed. 
Quitman  himself  is  said  to  have  worn  but  one  shoe,  hav- 
ing lost  the  other. 

General  Scott  appointed  Quitman  governor  of  the  City 
of  Mexico.  The  dashing  soldier  was  very  much  dissatisfied 
with  the  terms  of  peace  that  were  proposed  on  the  Ameri- 
can side.  His  plan  would  have  been  a  permanent  occupa- 
tion, and  the  annexation  of  Mexico.  He  returned  to 
Washington  especially  to  advocate  such  a  policy,  and  to 
demonstrate  the  ease  of  its  accomplishment.  In  the  Demo- 
cratic Convention  of  1846,  held  in  Baltimore,  Quitman 
was  proposed  as  a  candidate  for  vice-president  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  1849  he  was  elected  governor  of 
Mississippi  by  a  great  majority.  He  served  as  governor 
from  1850  to  1851,  and  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
Congress  as  a  Democrat,  in  1855,  and  continued  to  1858, 
the  year  of  his  death.  He  was  an  ardent  secessionist  and 


522  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

suggested  the  formation  of  a  Southern  Confederacy.  His 
life,  however,  closed  before  he  could  witness  the  spreading 
of  the  flames  that  he  had  helped  to  kindle/ 

The  Civil  War 

That  an  important  share  was  contributed  by  the  German 
soldier  in  the  great  war  which  threatened  to  rupture  the 
Union  is  commonly  acknowledged,  but  the  facts  are  not 
generally  known.  Exactly  how  large  a  part  was  taken  by 
the  men  of  German  descent  will  never  be  ascertained,  but 
an  investigation  made  a  few  years  after  the  war  tells  us, 
at  least  with  some  degree  of  accuracy,  how  large  was  the 
number  of  those  born  in  Germany  who  enlisted  as  soldiers 
in  the  Civil  War.  The  statistical  work  of  B.  A.  Gould,^ 
published  for  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  in 
1869,  attempts  the  difficult  problem  of  giving  general 
summaries  of  the  enlistments  of  soldiers  according  to 
their  nativity.  The  results  obtained,  though  not  absolutely 
correct,  are  undoubtedly  as  near  the  truth  as  careful  in- 
vestigation can  make  them.  The  place  of  birth  was  not 
asked  for  in  the  early  enlistments,  being  not  put  down 
until  the  organization  of  the  provost-marshal-general's 
office.  Out  of  the  two  and  one  half  millions  of  men  in 
the  army,  therefore,  the  nativity  of  only  about  one  million, 
two  hundred  thousand  could  be  ascertained  by  Dr.  Gould 
from  the  records  at  the  national  and  state  capitals.  About 
two  hundred  and  ninety-three  thousand  more  were  ob- 
tained by  written  inquiries  from  regimental  officers.  The 
remaining  numbers,  whose  nativity  was  not  known,  were 

*  Cf.  C\a.yhoTne^s  Life  and  Correspondence  of  General  Quitman.  (New  York, 
1860.)  Cf.  also  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  vi,  pp.  321  ff. 

^  Investigations  in  the  Military  and  Anthropological  Statistics  of  American 
Soldiers.  By  Benjamin  Apthorp  Gould,  actuary  to  the  United  States  Sani- 
tary Commission.  (New  York,  1869.) 


IN  THE   CIVIL  WAR 


623 


allotted  in  the  proportion  of  the  known  enhstments.  A 
count  was  also  taken  of  reenlistments,  which  were  very 
frequent  after  the  first  period  of  three  months,  or  the 
next  period  of  three  years.  Employing  this  method  Dr. 
Gould  obtained  the  f  ollowinsf  results  *  for  each  state :  — 


Nativities  of  United  States  Volunteers 

Place  of 
enlistment 

Native 
Americans 

English 

Irish 

Germans 

Total  number 

of  different 
white  soldiers 

Maine 

48,135 

779 

1,971 

244 

54,800 

New  Hampshire 

19,759 

1,147 

2,699 

952 

27,800 

Vermont 

22,037 

325 

1,289 

86 

26,800 

Massachusetts 

79,560 

2,306 

10,007 

1,876 

105,500 

R.  I.  and  Conn. 

37,190 

2,234 

7,657 

2,919 

54,900 

New  York 

203,622 

14,024 

51,206 

36,680 

337,800 

New  Jersey 

35,496 

2,491 

8,880 

7,337 

59,300 

Pennsylvania 

222,641 

3,503 

17,418 

17,208 

271,500 

Delaware 

8,306 

127 

582 

621 

10,000 

Maryland 

22,435 

403 

1,400 

3,107 

27,900 

Dist.  of  Columbia 

9,967 

152 

698 

746 

12,000 

West  Virginia 

21,111 

248 

550 

869 

23,300 

Kentucky 

38,988 

117 

1,303 

1,943 

43,100 

Ohio 

219,949 

2,619 

8,129 

20,102 

259,900 

ludiana 

141,454 

1,248 

3,472 

7,190 

156,400 

Illinois 

108,983 

5,953 

12,041 

18,140 

216,900 

Michigan 

54,830 

1,310 

3,278 

3,534 

72,000 

Wisconsin 

47,972 

3,703 

3,621 

15,709 

79,500 

Minnesota 

11,977 

614 

1,140 

2,715 

20,000 

Iowa 

48,686 

1.015 

1,436 

2,850 

50,600 

Missouri 

46,676 

761 

4,362 

30,899 

85,400 

Kansas 

13,493 

429 

1,082 

1,090 

16,800 

Grand  Total 

1,523,267 

45,508 

144,221 

176,817 

2,018,200 

From  the  above  table  it  appears  that  176,817  Germans, 
i.  e.,  men  born  in  Germany,  volunteered  in  the  Civil  War. 
This  is  a  conservative  estimate,  since  a  large  number  of 
German  -born  undoubtedly  belong  to  the  seventy-five 
thousand  foreigners  whose  nativity  was  unknown.  Large 
numbers  were  also  taken  out,  in  Gould's    estimate,  for 

1  Gould,  p.  27.  For  convenience  the  columns  "  British  Americans,"  "  Other 
Foreigners,"  and  "  Foreigners  not  otherwise  designated,"  have  been  omitted 
from  the  table. 


524  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

reenlistment ;  in  Missouri,  for  instance,  as  many  as  ten 
thousand.  The  statement  which  is  often  made,  that  over 
two  hundred  thousand  Germans  served  in  the  Northern 
armies,  is  not  at  all  exaggerated.  Were  we  to  consider  the 
number  of  soldiers  of  German  blood  fighting  for  the  Union 
cause,  the  numbers  would  swell  to  perhaps  three  times 
that  figure.* 

In  order  to  test  the  relative  amount  of  service  contrib- 
uted by  each  nationality,  in  proportion  to  its  population 
in  the  United  States,  Dr.  Gould  constructs  another  inter- 
esting table.^  He  takes  the  census  of  1860  as  a  basis,  and 
having  given  2,018,200  as  the  total  number  of  white 
soldiers  in  the  Union  armies,  he  estimates  what  should  be 
the  contribution  for  each  stock,  if  men  of  every  nativity 
had  enlisted  in  the  exact  proportion  of  their  population. 
The  result  is  as  follows  :  — 

Enlistment  called  a    ,     ■, 

r      ■                .-  Actual 

tor  in  proportion  , .  i.         i. 

,              1   ,  •  enlistment 
to  population 

Native  Americans  1,660,068  1,523,267 

British  Americans  22,695  53,532 

English  38,250  45,508 

Irish  139,052  144,221 

Germans  118,402  176,817 

Other  foreigners  39,455  48,410 

Foreigners  not  otherwise  designated  278  26,445 

Grand  Total  2,018,200         2,018,200 

*  The  ratio  of  "  persons  of  German  parentage  "  (including  those  born  in 
Germany  and  their  descendants  of  the  first  generation,  born  in  the  United 
States)  to  "  Native  Germans,"  in  1900  was  as  2.9  :  1.  The  ratio  was  prob- 
ably not  as  large  in  1860,  because  the  German  immigration  was  very  large 
after  that  time.  The  ratio  2\  :  1  would  be  a  conservative  one,  and  applied 
above,  would  give  the  German  element  five  hundred  thousand  volunteers  in 
the  Northern  armies.  This  number  would  not  include  the  descendants  of 
Germans  who  came  to  the  United  States  in  the  eighteenth  century  or  before. 

2  Page  28,  Table  iv,  "  Distribution  of  United  States  Volunteers  according 
to  the  Nativities  of  the  Population  in  1860." 


IN  THE   CIVIL  WAR  625 

This  shows  that  the  native  American  stock  fell  short  of 
its  due  proportion,  but  Gould  points  out  that  the  military 
population  of  foreign  birth  had  increased  through  immi- 
gration about  two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  during 
the  five  years  of  the  war,  making  the  contribution  of  the 
foreigners  so  much  larger.  The  foreigners  in  every  case 
show  an  increase  over  the  number  which  would  naturally 
be  expected  of  them.  A  very  interesting  comparison  can 
be  made  between  the  German  and  Irish  volunteers.  The 
Irish  population  of  foreign  birth  at  that  time  was  larger 
than  the  population  of  German  birth,  but  the  enlistment 
of  the  Germans  was  nevertheless  larger  than  that  of  the 
Irish.  According  to  the  estimate  of  Gould,  there  were 

German  Volunteers,  176,817 

Irish  Volunteers,  144,221 

The  Germans,  if  they  had  volunteered  in  the  proportion 
of  the  average,  would  have  furnished  only  118,402  men, 
while  the  Irish  would  have  had  139,052  men.  The  Irish, 
therefore,  sent  5169  men  in  excess  of  the  general  average, 
while  the  Germans  sent  28.596  men  in  excess  of  the  gen- 
eral  average.  The  Germans  therefore  in  their  proportionate 
share  surpassed  both  the  native  and  the  Irish  elements, 
outstripping  the  latter  also  in  actual  numbers,  by  32,596 
volunteers,  although  they  were  not  as  numerous  as  the 
Irish  in  the  population  of  the  United  States  at  that  time 
(1860).  This  fact  is  exceedingly  interesting  when  we  re- 
member that  the  Irish  have  so  frequently  been  called  the 
better  and  more  numerous  fighters  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States.  The  same  impression  has  erroneously  gained 
ground  in  regard  to  the  Irish  (or  Scotch-Irish)  element 
on  the  frontier^  of  the  United  States  in  the  eijrhteenth 

»  Cf.  Chapter  x,  pp.  267  £E.,  and  Chapter  xii,  pp.  366  ff. 


526  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

and  nineteenth  centuries.  The  whole  question  receives 
new  illumination  from  the  statistics  of  Mr.  Gould ;  they 
furnish  the  only  positive  evidence  there  is  available  giving 
a  basis  for  comparison  of  the  various  national  stocks  as 
soldiers.  The  same  statistics  show  that  the  English  ele- 
ment, though  in  actual  numbers  their  contribution  was 
small,  furnished  7258  in  excess  of  their  ratio,  which  is 
even  a  larger  proportionate  share  of  their  own  numbers 
than  in  the  case  of  the  Germans.  The  Germanic  element, 
therefore,  in  its  foreign  element  shows  superiority  over 
the  Celtic  in  the  amount  of  its  service  in  the  Civil  War. 

The  argument  is  made,  in  Gould's  chapter  on  the  *'Na- 
tivity  of  the  United  States  Volunteers,"  that  the  foreigners 
furnished  more  bounty-jumpers  than  the  native  popu- 
lation. "  In  general  the  manufacturing  states  —  as,  for 
instance,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  New 
York,  and  New  Jersey  —  rank  high  in  the  column  of  deser- 
tion ;  and  this  result  is  to  be  attributed  not  only  to  the 
fact  that  such  states  are  dotted  with  towns  and  cities,  but 
the  secondary  fact  that  these  towns  and  cities  are  crowded 
with  foreigners."  ^  Europeans  were  attracted  by  the  large 
bounties,  and  after  desertion  would  enlist  again  for  another 
bounty.  But  it  is  by  no  means  proved  that  Europeans 
did  so  alone,  —  in  fact  a  "  green"  immigrant  would  as 
a  general  thing  not  have  half  as  good  a  chance  as  a 
native.  He  would  not  be  acquainted  with  the  methods,  and 
as  far  as  the  Germans  were  concerned,  he  would  be  handi- 
capped by  insufficient  acquaintance  with  the  language. 
The  localities  named  as  the  places  where  most  deser- 
tions occurred  were  not  those  from  which  the  Germans 
volunteered  in  greatest  numbers ;  in  fact  only  one 
seventh  of  the  German  volunteers  came  from  those  East- 

»  Quoted  by  Gould  from  the  words  of  General  Fry,  p.  29. 


IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR  527 

ern  manufacturing  states.  Germans  enlisted  in  greatest 
numbers  in  the  Middle  West,  in  the  states  of  Missouri, 
Ohio,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Indiana. 

Some  of  the  regiments  which  might  be  called  the  German 
regiments  of  the  United  States  Army  were  the  following  :' 

New  York  Regiments: 

Dickel's  Mounted  Rifles,  Fourth  New  York  Cavalry. 

Blenker's  Battery,  Second  Battery,  Light  Artillery,  New 
York. 

Steuben  Regiment,  Seventh  New  York  Infantry. 

First  German  Rifles,  Eighth  New  York  Infantry. 

United  Turner  Rifles,  Twentieth  New  York  Infantry. 

First  Astor  Regiment,  Twenty-ninth  New  York  Infantry. 

Fifth  German  Rifles,  Forty-fifth  New  York  Infantry. 

Fremont  Regiment,  Forty-sixth  New  York  Infantry. 

Sigel  Rifles,  or  German  Rangers,  Fifty-second  New  York  In- 
fantry. 

Barney  Rifles,  or  Schwarzes-Yager  Regiment,  Fifty-fourth 
New  York  Infantry. 

Steuben  Rangers,  Eighty-sixth  New  York  Infantry. 

Pennsylvania  Regiments : 

First  German  Regiment,  Seventy-fourth  Pennsylvania  In- 
fantry. 

Second  German  Regiment,  Seventy-fifth  Pennsylvania  In- 
fantry. 

Ohio  Regiments : 

First  German  Regiment,  Twenty-eighth  Ohio  Infantry. 
Second   German   Regiment,  Thirty-seventh   Ohio   Infantry 

(Colonel  Siber). 
Third  German  Regiment,  Sixty-seventh  Ohio  Infantry  (Colo- 
nel Biirsten-binder). 

Indiana  Regiment: 

First  German  Regiment,  Thirty-second  Indiana,  commanded 
successively  by  Willich,  Von  Trebra,  and  Erdelmeyer. 
»  Cf.  Rosengarten,  pp.  201-203. 


528  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Illinois  Regiment : 

Heeker's  Yager  Regiment,  Twenty-fourth  Illinois. 

Wisconsin  Regiments : 

First  German  Regiment,  Ninth  Wisconsin. 

Second  German  Regiment,  Twenty-sixth  Wisconsin. 

The  German  volunteers  in  Pennsylvania  were  numer- 
ous from  the  very  start.'  For  the  three  months'  service 
the  following  regiments  were  full  of  Germans :  — 

Fourth,  with  Hartranf t  as  its  colonel ; 

Eighth,  from  Lehigh  and  Northampton ; 

Ninth,  under  Pennypacker; 

Tenth,  from  Lancaster ; 

Eleventh,  from  Northumberland ; 

Fourteenth,  from  Berks ; 

Fifteenth,  from  Luzerne ; 

Sixteenth,  from  York ; 

Eighteenth,  from  Philadelphia,  under  Wilhelm  ; 

Twenty-first,  under  Ballier. 

The  regiments  for  three  years'  service,  formed  after- 
wards in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  containing  a  large 
German  element,  are  too  numerous  to  mention.^  The 
record  of  some  of  them  will  be  referred  to  in  succeeding 
pages. 

In  the  treatment  of  a  subject  of  such  wide  scope  within 
limited  space,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  a  selection  from 
a  mass  of  material.  A  few  moments  of  the  war  will  there- 
fore be  chosen  to  illustrate  the  work  of  the  German  sol- 
dier for  the  Union  cause.  Such  an  epoch  came  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  war,  when  one  of  the  border  states  had 

1  Cf.  Rosengarten,  pp.  203  £P.  Refers  to  Bate's  History  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Regiments,  etc.,  in  the  Rebellion  (five  volumes). 

^  An  account  in  detail  can  be  found  in  Rosengarten,  pp.  204  ff. 


IN   THE   CIVIL   WAR  529 

not  yet  clearly  taken  its  stand.  The  one  in  question  was 
the  largest  of  the  border  states,  viz.,  Missouri.  The  strong 
German  population  of  Missouri  was  not  embarrassed  by 
inherited  ideas  of  a  dutiful  allegiance  to  the  state  of  their 
residence,  in  preference  to  loyalty  to  the  national  govern- 
ment.   They  made   their   influence   felt,  and   under  the 
leadership  of  Blair  took  the  initiative  in  saving  Missouri 
for  the  Union.  "  The  story  of  Missouri  for  the  next  [first] 
four  months,"   says   Rhodes,   "is  of  a   contest  between 
Blair  and  Jackson  —  a  contest  of  political  management, 
of  martial  proceeding,  and  of  battle.  Blair  showed  great 
pohtical  ability,  and  assisted  by  Lyon,  who  had  military 
talent  and  whose  forces  constantly  increased,  made  steady 
progress.  St.  Louis  w^as  soon  gained  and  the  Union  senti- 
ment in    the  state   grew   rapidly.  July  30,   the  conven- 
tion, sitting  at  Jefferson  City,  the  capital,  deposed  Gov- 
ernor Jackson,  appointed  Gamble,  a  Union  man,  in   his 
stead,  and  in  other  ways  brought  the  machinery  of  the 
state   government  to   the   support   of  the   Union  cause. 
Though  this  did  not  end  the  fight  for  Missouri,  yet  she 
was  henceforward  officially,  as  well  as  in  dominant  senti- 
ment, on  the  side  of  the  North."*  The  bitterness  of  the 
struggle  in  St.  Louis,  which  ended  in  the  victory  of  Blair 
and  the  taking  of  Camp  Jackson,  does  not  appear  in  the 
quotation  given  from  the  historian  of  the  Civil  War.  An 

1  J.  F.  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850, 
vol.  iii,  pp.  393-394.  Rhodes  gives  credit  to  the  German  population  for 
their  Union  sentiments  and  for  their  "composing  most  of  the  regiments 
which  were  formed  in  defense  of  St.  Louis."  A  detailed  account  of  how- 
great  the  service  of  the  German  recruits  actually  was  is  very  rarely  found 
in  the  histories  of  the  Civil  War.  Rhodes  refers  to  Carr's  Missouri j  to 
Snead,  The  Fight  for  Missouri ;  and  Nicolay  and  Hay,  Abraham  Lincoln,  vol. 
iv,  chap.  xi.  The  last  of  these  references  (p.  20G)  states  :  "  This  minority 
[anti-slavery,  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis]  was  made  up  principally  of  its  Ger- 
man residents  and  voters,  nnmhering  fully  one  half  the  total  population  of 
the  city,  which  in  1860  was  100,000." 


630  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

excellent  account  of  that  stirring  epoch  is  given,  by  the 
pen  of  a  contemporary  and  participant,  in  the  pages  of 
"  Der  deutsche  Pionier."  ^  The  following  account  is  based 
upon  his  recollections  :  — 

Missouri  was  for  the  most  part  loyal  to  the  Union,  but 
her  governor,  C.  F.  Jackson,  was  Southern  in  his  sympa- 
thies, and  to  him  was  due  the  struggle  in  Missouri  before 
the  majority  could  gain  full  control.  At  first  a  large  part 
of  the  native  population  attempted  to  remain  neutral  be- 
tween North  and  South,  a  position  which  some  of  the 
other  border  states  also  tried  at  first  to  maintain.  When 
neutrality  became  impossible,  the  state  seemed  about  to 
be  torn  apart,  the  Southern  sympathizers  threatening 
war.  On  the  seventh  of  January  two  German  militia  com- 
panies were,  for  reasons  insignificant,  disarmed  by  Briga- 
dier-General Frost.  On  the  next  evening  the  Minute  Men, 
as  the  secessionist  militia  called  themselves,  held  a  public 
meeting,  in  which  secession  speeches  were  made.  Fried- 
rich  Mtinch,  of  Warren  County,  was  threatened  with  vio- 
lence if  he  published  any  more  Union  articles.  In  St. 
Louis,  Olshausen,  editor  of  the  "  Anzeiger  des  Westens," 
also  Bornstein  and  Bernays  of  the  "  Westliche  Post," 
courageously  continued  voicing  Union  sentiments.  A  few 
days  later  a  German  military  company  was  organized 
called  the  "  Schwarzes-Jager  Corps."  Every  German 
faithful  to  the  Union  and  minded  to  join  the  company 
was  invited  to  assemble  in  the  "  Jagdverein."  The  corps 
was  nicknamed  "  Black  Guards  "  (with  a  double  meaning), 
by  the  Minute  Men,  who  nevertheless  stood  in  great  awe 
of  it. 

The  state  election  of  April  1  gave  the  victory  to  the 

'  Vols,  xi  and  xil,  1879-1880,  "  Der  Ausbrucli  des  Biirgerkrieges  in  Mis- 
souri," von  Friedrich  Schnake. 


IN  THE  CIVIL   WAR  531 

enemies  of  the  Union.  This  was  a  sign  either  of  bad  or- 
ganization on  the  part  of  the  Union  men  or  of  a  loss  of 
self-confidence,  and  promised  that  St.  Louis  would  be 
apathetic  enough  to  throw  itself  into  the  arms  of  Gov- 
ernor Jackson.  The  Minute  Men  made  a  list  of  prominent 
adherents  of  the  Union  cause,  "rebels  against  the  state," 
whom  they  wished  to  render  harmless.  Their  plans,  how- 
ever, could  not  be  carried  out  because  of  the  initiative 
taken  by  Lyon,  Blair,  and  the  Germans. 

Within  the  borders  of  St.  Louis  there  was  located  a 
United  States  arsenal.  The  possession  of  it  meant  a  defin- 
ite advantage  to  either  side.  Without  it  the  Union  forces 
of  the  Northwest  would  be  in  want  of  arms  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  struggle,  and  if  the  Southern  forces  got  pos- 
session of  it  they  could  quickly  overrun  Missouri  and 
Illinois.  Expecting  the  arsenal  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  South,  Floyd,  Secretary  of  War,  had  the  arsenal 
stocked  to  overflowing.  It  was  guarded  for  weeks  by  only 
three  men,  the  expectation  being  that  the  Southerners 
would  take  possession.  But  a  mistake  was  made  in  putting 
Nathaniel  Lyon,  of  the  Second  Infantry,  in  command, 
who,  on  arriving,  immediately  recognized  the  importance 
of  the  place.  Through  Congressman  Blair,  he  at  once 
communicated  with  prominent  Union  men  for  their  assist- 
ance. A  German  brewer,  Dr.  A.  Hammer,  lived  in  a 
house  northwest  from  the  arsenal  on  an  eminence  above 
it.  One  morning  one  of  his  wagons,  laden  with  beer  bar- 
rels, entered  the  arsenal,  and  drove  out  again,  without 
attracting  attention.  Under  a  cover  spread  over  the  bar- 
rels there  was  a  box  of  muskets  with  necessary  ammu- 
nition. It  was  the  first  gift  of  the  commandant  of  the 
arsenal  to  his  Union  friends.  Dr.  Hammer  at  once  put 
the  students  of  the  Humboldt  Institution  under  arms,  and 


532  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

day  and  night  kept  in  his  house  a  guard  with  which  to 
fall  upon  the  Minute  Men  if  they  attempted  to  attack 
the  arsenal.  But  more  imj3ortant  than  that,  Lyon  com- 
municated with  the  Black  Guards,  the  Turner,  and  other 
German  organizations,  so  as  to  be  sure  of  their  cooperation 
in  case  of  necessity.'  From  the  menibershiiD  of  the  Turner 
societies  there  was  organized  the  Union  Guards,  the  sec- 
tion of  riflemen  (Schiitzen)  being  a  very  valuable  factor. 
At  the  time  of  the  election  of  Lincoln  eighty-two  native 
Americans  left  the  Turners  to  join  the  Minute  Men.  The 
Turners  recruited  new  members  to  fill  the  vacancies  and 
then  gave  themselves  effective  military  organization.  On 
the  sixth  day  of  February  a  series  of  resolutions  was 
passed  by  them,  to  the  effect  that  they  would  never 
depart  from  their  rights  and  duties  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  and  that  neither  the  legislative  convention 
nor  any  other  body,  not  even  the  majority  of  the  people 
of  the  state  of  Missouri,  had  the  right  to  wrest  from  them 
their  citizen's  rights,  nor  separate  them  from  the  Union. 
They  resolved  that,  if  the  state  of  Missouri  should  secede, 
a  provincial  government  should  be  erected  for  the  county 
of  St.  Louis,  which  should  remain  faithful  to  the  Union, 
and  which  should  be  defended  by  them  with  their  pro- 
perty and  their  blood. 

Three  companies  known  as  the  Turner  Battalion  were 
put  in  readiness,  and  they  were  drilled  by  an  officer  of 
the  United  States  Army,  E.  D.  Larned,  so  that  they 
might  understand  the  American  system  of  commands. 
The  Turner  Hall  was  put  into  a  state  of  defense,  the 
lower  windows  being  nailed  up  and  breastworks  erected 
before  the  doors.  Gollmer  and  Miiller  were  in  command 
at  the  Turnhalle.  Both  forces,  the  Turners  and  the  Min- 

^  Cf.  James  Peckham,  General  Nathaniel  Lyon  and  Missouri^  in  1861. 


IN   THE   CIVIL   WAR     .  533 

ute  Men,  were  apparently  ready  for  combat.  The  latter, 
however,  became  inactive,  in  all  probability  owing  to  the 
strenuous  preparations  of  the  German  forces. 

Events  on  the  outside  soon  broug-ht  about  a  clash.  On 
Sunday,  April  14,  the  day  after  the  surrender  of  Fort 
Sumter,  Lincoln  issued  a  call  for  seventy-five  thousand 
volunteers  for  three  months'  service.  The  quota  of  Mis- 
souri was  to  be  four  thousand  men.  Governor  Jackson 
replied  to  the  President :  "  Your  requisition,  in  my  judg- 
ment, is  illegal,  unconstitutional,  and  revolutionary  in  its 
object,  inhuman  and  diabolical,  and  cannot  be  complied 
with."  Congressman  Blair  gathered  the  members  of  the 
Committee  of  Safety  more  closely  about  him.  He  advised 
the  officers  of  the  state  militia  to  resign  and  be  available 
for  the  volunteer  service  of  the  United  States.  The  first 
officer  to  act  upon  the  suggestion  was  Major  Friedrich 
Schiifer.^  A  large  number  of  others  immediately  followed 
his  example.  Several  of  the  United  States  officers  in  high 
places,  such  as  General  William  A.  Harney,  through  long 
residence  in  St.  Louis,  had  many  friends  among  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Secessionists.  Such  men  therefore  looked  upon 
the  rebel  preparations  with  complacency.  General  Harney's 
dilatory  policy  permitted  the  formation  of  Camp  Jackson, 
and  nearly  resulted  disastrously  for  the  Unionists. 

The  great  object  at  stake  for  the  present  was  still  the 
United  States  Arsenal.  On  the  twentieth  of  April  the 
news  came  that  Liberty,  Missouri,  with  all  its  supplies, 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  state  troops,  which  were  used 
by  the  governor  in  the  interests  of  secession.  The  new^s 
gave  the  Minute  Men  courage,  and  they  marched  out 

'  He  was  subsequently  colonel  in  Bornstein's  Second  Missouri  Regiment, 
reorganized  as  the  Second  Regiment,  for  three  years'  service.  He  also  served 
under  General  Frdraont,  and  later  under  General  Rosecrana. 


534  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

apparently  for  an  attack.  But  they  lost  courage  when 
the  people  assumed  a  threatening  attitude.  Mayor  Taylor, 
although  of  Southern  sympathies,  had  much  to  do  with 
the  checking  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Minute  Men.  He 
explained  to  them  how  well  prepared  the  Black  Guards 
and  the  terrible  Turners  were  for  resistance  ;  that  moreover 
they  would  not  allow  the  arsenal  to  be  taken  without  a 
desperate  struggle.  He  himself  was  certain  that  such  an 
undertaking  would  bring  the  horrors  of  bloodshed  into 
the  streets  of  St.  Louis.  The  Minute  Men,  yielding,  lost 
their  last  chance  of  overpowering  the  few  defenders  of  the 
arsenal. 

The  Germans  now  clamored  to  be  taken  into  the  arsenal 
in  order  to  defend  it  during  this  crisis,  but  Blair  was  not 
ready  to  take  so  bold  a  step.  The  Germans  held  a  meet- 
ing, Finkelnburg  presiding,  which  expressed  its  disap- 
proval of  the  dilatory  attitude  of  the  men  in  power.  The 
meeting  was  very  stormy.  Blair  urged  patience.  Finkeln- 
burg answered  calmly  but  decisively  that  the  refusal  of  the 
authorities  to  accept  their  offer  to  defend  the  arsenal 
would  lead  to  the  disorganization  of  the  German  Battal- 
ion. The  meeting  was  adjourned  until  midnight,  gi^^ng 
Blair  a  chance  to  consult  Lyon  at  the  arsenal.  The  Ger- 
mans decided,  in  the  mean  time,  to  ofPer  their  services  to 
the  United  States  government,  and  to  leave  St.  Louis  at 
once  in  a  body  if  their  offer  to  defend  the  arsenal  were 
not  accepted.  They  did  not  wish  to  stand  idly  by  while 
the  government  was  being  robbed,  nor  did  they,  unarmed, 
wish  to  be  shot  down  in  the  streets  without  being  able 
to  defend  themselves.  About  midnio:ht  Blair  reentered 
the  Turnhalle,  accompanied  by  Lieutenant  Schofield  of  the 
United  States  Army.  Blair  said  that  he  had  brought 
the  latter  officer  with  him,  so  that  the  Turners  might  not  be 


IN  THE   CIVIL   WAR  535 

delayed  if  they  felt  they  must  offer  their  services  to  the 
United  States ;  but  that  he  could  not  open  the  arsenal ; 
moreover  that  all  telegraphic  communication  with  Wash- 
ington was  interrupted.  Friedrich  Schnake  called  attention 
to  the  line  of  communication  still  open  through  Baltimore, 
and  moved  that  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  offer 
the  services  of  the  organized  German  troops  to  the  United 
States  through  the  governor  of  Illinois,  as  volunteers  of 
Missouri.  This  motion  was  unanimously  adopted  without 
debate.  The  die  was  cast ;  the  committee  was  named  and 
the  assembly  adjourned. 

Blair  and  Schofield,  knowing  that  the  departure  of  the 
German  Turners  would  leave  the  city  and  arsenal  in  Con- 
federate hands,  and  now  being  convinced  of  the  determin- 
ation of  the  Germans,  had  a  short  interview  with  Lyon 
and  decided  to  admit  the  Turners  into  the  arsenal.  At 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  twenty-second  of  April, 
the  doors  of  the  arsenal  were  opened  and  the  volunteers 
of  Missouri  entered.  Lieutenant  Sexton,  between  two  and 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  had  gone  to  the  Turnhalle 
and  affixed  his  signature  to  about  three  hundred  slips  of 
paper  which  served  as  passes  into  the  arsenal.  The  third 
company  was  the  first  to  enter.  The  others  came  in  later 
by  twos  and  threes. 

The  news  of  the  garrisoning  of  the  arsenal  spread  like 
wildfire,  and  the  fear  was  entertained  that,  because  the 
Germans  had  taken  possession,  the  native  element  would 
start  an  insurrection,  but  nothing  was  done,  not  even  to 
prevent  the  rest  of  the  German  troops  from  entering.  A 
number  of  regiments  were  now  regularly  formed  ;  F.  P. 
Blair  was  in  command  of  the  First,  Bornstein  (editor  of 
the  "  Westliche  Post  ")  of  the  Second,  Franz  Sigel  of  the 
Third,  and  Nicholas  Schiittner  of  the  Fourth  regiment 


536  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  volunteers.  Since  the  number  of  applications  increased, 
Lyon  decided  to  organize  a  fifth  regiment,  which  elected 
K.  E.  Salomon  as  its  colonel/  The  five  regiments  were 
called  Home  Guards,  and  were  to  serve  especially  in 
defense  of  the  citizens  and  their  property.  It  was  now 
possible  to  send  thirty  thousand  muskets  to  Governor 
Yates  for  the  state  of  Illinois,  likewise  ten  thousand  pounds 
of  powder,  under  the  protection  of  the  First  Regiment. 
Thus  the  Illinois  reg-iments  were  armed  and  enabled  to 
occupy  northern  Missouri  and  parts  of  Illinois. 

On  the  third  of  May,  under  the  direction  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  under  the  command  of  Brigadier- General 
Frost,  the  Secessionists,  or,  as  they  were  pleased  to  call 
themselves,  "  State's  troops,"  were  assembled  at  the  west 
end  of  Olive  Street,  St.  Louis,  in  Lindell  Grove.  This 
was  called  Camp  Jackson  in  honor  of  the  governor.  Frost 
announced  to  Lyon  that  his  purpose  was  to  drill  the  troops 
in  the  service  of  the  state.  The  real  object,  however,  was 
to  prepare  for  driving  out  the  Germans  and  taking  pos- 
session of  the  arsenal.  Lyon  answered  that  he  would  fire 
upon  all  that  should  come  within  range.  He  informed 
those  in  command  at  Camp  Jackson  that  he  would  not 
tolerate  the  camp's  existence.  In  order  to  reconnoitre  the 
ground  he  drove  to  Camp  Jackson  in  the  disguise  of  a 
woman,  wearing  a  veil  over  his  face,  and  inspected  the 
enemy's  works.  J.  J.  Witzig,  who  followed  in  a  buggy, 
executed  the  order  to  bring  the  Committee  of  Safety  to- 
gether for  a  conference  at  the  arsenal. 

On  the  same  evening  there  arrived  in  St.  Louis  a  Ger- 

'  He  was  the  brother  of  Edward  Salomon,  the  War  Governor  of  Wiscon- 
sin. Another  brother,  Friedrich  Salomon,  organized  the  Nintli  Wisconsin 
(German)  Regiment  and  for  distinguished  service  in  the  Southwest,  against 
Generals  Kirby  Smith  and  Price,  was  made  brigadier-general  and  brevet 
major-general. 


IN   THE  CIVIL  WAR  537 

man  artillery  company  under  a  captain  whose  name  was 
Jackson/  They  had  been  sent  on  a  fool's  errand  to  the 
borders  of  Kansas,  to  guard  against  fancied  attacks,  —  in 
reality  to  be  out  of  the  way.  This  company  did  not  know 
the  nature  of  Camp  Jackson,  but  had  been  ordered  thither. 
Had  they  done  what  was  there  demanded  of  them,  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Union  regiments  would  have  been  in  doubt.  They 
recognized,  however,  that  a  treasonable  demand  was  made 
of  them,  and  when  the  decisive  moment  came  these  Ger- 
man gunners  folded  their  arms  and  refused  absolutely  to 
act  against  their  adopted  country.  Proudly  they  marched 
as  prisoners  of  war  to  the  arsenal,  and  having  arrived 
there  they  instantly  joined  the  Lyon  organization.  By 
their  determined  stand  they  contributed  very  largely  to 
the  final  victory. 

After  declaring  General  Frost  and  his  followers  enemies 
of  the  United  States,  Lyon  marched  his  division  to  Camp 
Jackson  and  laid  siege  to  the  camp.  An  honorable  sur- 
render was  granted  them,  and  no  bloodshed  followed  ex- 
cept that  for  which  the  mob  was  responsible.  Near  the 
camp  Captain  Blandowsky,  a  German  Pole,  was  shot  with 
a  revolver,  after  which  a  volley  was  fired  into  the  mob  by 
the  troops,  who  acted  in  self-defense.  The  Secessionists 
fell  back,  leaving  fifteen  dead  and  several  wounded  on 
the  open  field  north  of  the  camp.  Two  men  of  the  Third 
Regiment  were  killed  and  several  wounded.  The  Minute 
Men  and  the  mob  were  in  a  fury  about  the  "treason"  of 
Lyon  and  Blair,  and  their  allowing  Americans  to  be  taken 
prisoners  by  "  long-eared  Dutchmen  and  mercenary  Hes- 
sians." Violence  was  threatened,  but  nothing  serious  oc- 

*  His  real  name  was  Jacquin,  and  he  was  born  in  1821  near  Metz,  in 
Lotharingia,  within  the  present  boundaries  of  the  German  Empire.  His 
father  was  a  Frenchman  who  had  served  as  au  officer  under  Napoleon  I. 
His  mother  was  a  German. 


538  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

curred,  in  the  face  of  the  disciplined  troops.  A  bloody 
Sunday  was  predicted  for  the  next  day,  and  the  mayor, 
D.  G.  Taylor,  issued  proclamations  closing  saloons  and 
urging  all  citizens  to  be  in  their  homes  after  dark.  Only 
one  fatal  occurrence  was  recorded,  though  all  day  rumors 
were  afloat  of  an  attack  on  the  Turnhalle,  and  also  of  re- 
venge to  be  taken  by  the  Germans  who  had  suffered  in 
the  mob's  attack.  Large  numbers  of  the  wealthier  class 
of  St.  Louis  fled  from  the  city. 

Among  the  Union  military  authorities  there  was  a  di- 
vergence as  to  poHcy.  Lyon  and  Blair,  on  the  one  hand, 
wished  to  see  energetic  measures  taken  against  the  Seces- 
sionists, while,  on  the  other,  Harney  and  McKinstry 
favored  a  conciliatory  policy.  Blair  kept  his  brother, 
Montgomery  Blair,  Postmaster-General  in  Washington, 
well  informed  as  to  all  that  was  going  on  in  Missouri. 
The  cabinet  officer  urged  upon  President  Lincoln  the  dis- 
missal of  General  Harney.  A  trustworthy  man  was  de- 
sired from  St.  Louis  to  explain  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
the  state.  The  choice  fell  upon  the  editor  of  the  '•  Anzei- 
ger  des  Westens,"  K.  L.  Bernays.  He  very  ably  repre- 
sented to  the  government  what  the  prevailing  conditions 
were  in  Missouri,  and  enabled  the  President  to  act  intel- 
ligently thereafter.  The  immediate  object  of  the  mission, 
the  removal  of  Harney,  had  already  been  accomplished, 
however,  for  on  May  20,  the  appointment  of  Lyon  as 
brigadier-general  arrived,  accompanied  by  another  order 
removing  General  Harney. 

A  proclamation  followed,  by  Governor  Jackson,  amount- 
ing to  an  open  declaration  of  war,  and  the  Secessionists 
within  the  state  were  organized.  To  counteract  the  move- 
ment General  Lyon  authorized  "  Home  Guard  "  regiments 
to  be  formed  throughout  the  state,  to  protect  the  United 


IN  THE   CIVIL   WAR  539 

States  government's  interests.  J.  A.  Eppstein,  a  German, 
formed  the  first  company  at  Boonville,  recruited  mostly 
of  Germans.  In  St.  Charles  County,  Arnold  Krekel  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  establishment  of  Home  Guards  and 
■was  made  colonel.*  Other  German  names  which  were 
prominent  in  Missouri  in  this  early  period  of  organization 
were  :  Carl  Danzer,  Theo.  Olshausen,  Heinrich  Bornstein 
(editor  of  the  "  Westliche  Post "  of  St.  Louis),  Friedrich 
Miinch,  Dr.  A.  Hammer,  Daniel  Hertle,  Dr.  Rudolph 
Dohn,  Dr.  Rosch,  Franz  Sigel,  and  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Mississippi,  at  Belleville,  Illinois,  Friedrich  Hecker 
and  Gustav  Korner.  Two  of  the  ablest  orators^  were  Carl 
Schurz  (then  located  in  Wisconsin)  and  Friedrich  Has- 
saurek.  Seward  once  remarked  in  a  stirring  address  that 
Missouri  would  have  to  be  Germanized  in  order  to  be  won 
for  the  Union. ^ 

The  fact  that  there  were  so  many  Germans  on  the 
Union  side  all  the  more  enraged  the  Secessionists  in  the 
native  population.  Many  deeds  of  violence  were  done, 
and  foreign  settlers  in  the  rural  districts  were  bullied  and 
often  driven  from  house  and  home.  The  first  battle  be- 
tween the  Secessionists  and  the  Home  Guards  occurred 
at  Cole   Camp,  in   Benton   County,  where  thousands  of 

*  Arnold  Krekel  was  born  in  1815,  in  the  district  of  Diisseldorf,  Prussia. 
He  settled  in  Missouri  with  his  parents  in  1832,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Duden  settlement.  He  studied  law  and  very  early  became  prominent.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  state's  convention,  and  as  president  of  that  body  signed 
the  emancipation  order,  January  11,  1865,  whereby  slavery  was  abolished  in 
Missouri.  He  was  appointed  by  Lincoln  United  States  Judge  of  the  West- 
ern District  of  Missouri  and  associate  judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  to  which 
Missouri  belonged. 

^  The  Douglas  Democratic  party  also  had  a  German  orator  in  Christian 
Kribben,  who,  however,  had  a  very  inconsiderable  following  among  the 
Germans, 

3  For  a  literary  picture  of  the  period  see  Winston  Churchill's  historical 
novel  The  Crisis,  e.  g.,  book  ii,  chap,  x  ("Richter's  Scar  "). 


540  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

German  families  lived.  The  so-called  "  state's  troops " 
surprised  Captain  Briilil's  Company  F,  in  a  barn.  The 
Secessionists  had  used  a  Union  flag  and  were  allowed  to 
pass  by  the  guards.  The  company  was  found  sleeping, 
and  the  assailants  killed  twenty-five  men  in  cold  blood 
before  Captain  Briihl's  men  were  able  to  stir.  This  act  of 
murder  seems  to  have  been  committed  not  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  governor,  who  was  not  far  distant.  The 
Benton  County  Home  Guards  rallied  after  their  loss  and 
gave  battle,  forcing  the  ^^  state's  troops"  to  make  a  rapid 
retreat.  The  Southern  forces  soon  withdrew  to  the  south- 
western corner  of  the  state  of  Missouri,  and  there,  joined 
by  troops  from  Texas  and  Arkansas,  they  proposed  to 
conquer  Missouri.  Their  original  plan  of  capturing  Mis- 
souri for  the  Confederacy,  unassisted,  had  been  foiled 
mainly  by  the  loyal  German  element. 

After  the  battle  of  Cole  Camp,  on  June  19,  Lyon,  being 
delayed  until  July  3  completing  his  organization.  General 
Sigel  was  sent  to  the  southwest  to  watch  or  engage  the 
enemy.  He  arrived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Carthage 
early  in  July,  and  finding  the  enemy  in  large  numbers, 
he  attempted  to  defeat  them  before  they  could  unite  their 
forces.  The  battle  of  Carthage  resulted,  July  3.  Accord- 
ing to  Sigel's  report  he  had  no  more  than  eleven  hundred 
men  (opposed  to  the  enemy's  five  thousand).  The  victory 
has  been  claimed  by  both  sides.  Sigel  was  unacquainted 
with  the  extent  of  the  loss  he  had  inflicted  on  the  enemy 
and  therefore  retreated  to  Springfield,  fearing  an  attack 
of  cavalry,  wherein  the  enemy  was  superior. 

General  Fremont  arrived  in  St.  Louis  July  25,  to  take 
command.  He  was  welcomed  by  the  German  population, 
and  many  of  their  representatives  were  placed  on  his  staff.* 

1  The  German  writers  believe  that  the  appointment  of  German  officers  in 


IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR  541 

The  mistake  was  made  by  Fremont  of  sending  all  avail- 
able soldiers  to  Northern  Missouri,  where  there  were  a 
few  "state's  troops,"  who  made  a  great  stir  with  a  defin- 
ite purpose.  They  wished  to  conceal  the  more  important 
action  which  the  Southern  Missouri  division  was  planning 
to  initiate.  Lyon  and  Sigel  were  left  to  their  own  re- 
sources, though  they  clamored  for  reinforcements.  They 
were  by  no  means  blind  to  what  was  happening  about 
them.  The  enemy  had  gathered  together  superior  forces 
and  was  about  to  attack  Springfield.  Knowing  that  the 
enemy's  army  was  much  larger  than  his  own,  Lyon  sought 
salvation  in  a  surprise.  The  battle  of  Wilson  Creek  followed. 
The  plan  was  that  Lyon  should  advance  upon  the  Con- 
federates, in  the  hope  of  surprising  them,  and  Sigel  at 
the  same  time  was  to  make  a  flanking  movement.  The 
plan  was  well  executed  by  both  divisions.  The  disparity 
in  numbers,  however,  was  too  great,  probably  five  thou- 
sand ao;ainst  twelve  thousand.  Sis^el's  division  consisted 
largely  of  men  who  had  volunteered  for  three  months, 
and  whose  terms  of  enlistment  had  already  closed.^  The 
Federal  loss  was  over  twelve  hundred ;  the  Confederates 
lost  almost  as  many  in  killed  and  wounded.  If  McDowell 
had  pursued   the  defeated  Union  army  he  might  have 

high  places  always  aroused  ill  feeling  among  the  graduates  of  West  Point 
and  also  among  the  large  "Knownothing  "  element. 

1  According  to  one  of  their  officers,  Friedrich  Schnake,  they  had  not  been 
treated  fairly  by  Lyon  and  Blair.  The  latter  acted  in  a  high-handed  manner 
with  them,  not  allowing  them  to  return  to  their  recruiting  place  in  order  to 
enlist  in  the  three  years'  service,  but  trying  to  hold  them  unlawfully.  Lyon 
did  not  wish  to  make  the  necessary  concessions  and  privileges  which  were 
given  in  the  three  years'  service.  The  soldiers  declared  they  would  not  be 
treated  like  dogs.  In  order  to  coerce  them,  threats  of  withdrawing  rations 
were  made.  Almost  all  of  these  soldiers  later  reenlisted,  Schnake  among 
them,  in  the  Twenty-third  Missouri  Volunteers.  The  soldiers  were  not 
lacking  in  patriotism  or  bravery,  but  had  been  treated  without  tact,  and 
perhaps  without  humanity. 


542  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

captured  their  baggage-train  and  taken  Springfield.  As 
it  was,  the  exhaustion  of  his  own  army  and  scant  ammuni- 
tion kept  him  from  following  up  the  victory.  In  the 
succeeding  months  the  importance  was  felt  of  gainino- 
the  southern  area  of  Missouri  for  the  Union.  Fremont  was 
soon  relieved  by  Hunter.  General  Pope  took  command 
next,  and  cleared  Southern  as  well  as  Northern  Missouri 
of  open  and  secret  rebels.  The  winning  of  Missouri  for 
the  Union  gave  a  better  opportunity  for  the  opening  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  set  up  a  bulwark  against  the  Confed- 
erate states  of  the  Southwest.  The  moral  effect  of  the 
victory  was  strengthening  and  inspiring  for  the  Union 
cause. 

Bearing  in  mind  the  necessity  of  confining  this  chapter 
to  moderate  limits,  it  will  be  impossible  to  trace  the 
history  of  the  numerous  German  regiments  in  the  Union 
service.  The  history  of  a  single  division  will  serve  as  an 
illustration  for  all,  —  a  regiment  which  has  been  highly 
praised,  and  also  more  severely  censured  than  any  of  the 
others.  In  the  well-known  Eleventh  Corps  there  were 
several  German  regiments  that  probably  saw  as  much  serv- 
ice as  any  body  of  men  in  the  Union  forces.  The  Eleventh 
Corps  was  not  entirely  German,*  but  it  contained  two  di- 
visions, those  of  Steinwehr  and  Schurz,  which  were  alto- 
gether German.  Most  of  the  officers  were  Germans  who 
had  experienced  military  service  abroad.  Steinwehr  was 
descended  from  a  family  of  soldiers.^  He  had  taken  part  in 
the  Mexican  War  in  an  Alabama  volunteer  reg-iment.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  recruited  a  regiment  of 

^  At  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  the  Eleventh  Corps  consisted  of  nearly 
thirteen  thousand  men  and  only  forty-five  hundred  were  Germans.  Cf. 
Dodge,  The  Campaign  of  Chancellorsville,  p.  100. 

^  He  was  born  in  1822,  at  Blankenburg,  Duchy  of  Brunswick. 


Bruno  Schniit::,  Architect 


Copyrighted  hy  Bass  and  IVoodivorth 
INDIANAPOLIS  MONUMENT   TO  CIVIL   WAR   HEROES 


OF  VHE 


IN  THE   CIVIL   WAE  543 

volunteers  in  New  York.  His  regiment  of  872  men  arrived 
in  Washington  June  27,  1861,  and  was  made  a  part  of 
the  brigade  of  Blenker/  It  consisted  of  the  regiments  of 
Stahel  (Eighth  New  York),  Von  Steinwehr  (Twenty-ninth 
New  York),  D'Utassy  (Thirty-ninth  New  York),  and  Em- 
stein  (Twenty-seventh  Pennsylvania).  At  the  battle  of 
Bull  Run  the  German  regiments  alone  held  their  ground 
at  the  stone  bridge  and  slope  west  of  Centerville.  They 
shared  with  Richardson's  brigade  the  honor  of  proving 
themselves  capable  soldiers,  when  others  passed  by  them 
panic-stricken." 

Most  of  these  regiments  were  found  again  in  the  Elev- 
enth Corps,  where  they  met  most  varied  fortunes.  At  the 
battle  of  Chancellorsville,  in  1863,  the  corps  well-nigh 
lost  its  reputation.  It  was  roundly  blamed  for  the  defeat 
of  the  Union  army,  and  nativistic  prejudices  throughout 
the  country  gloated  and  secretly  rejoiced  over  the  ill  for- 
tune that  befell  the  foreign  regiment.  The  calmer  judg- 
ment of  later  historians  has  placed  the  blame  entirely 
upon  the  general  in  command,  General  Hooker,  whose 
eccentric  manoeuvres  and  startling  blunders  brought  de- 
feat to  his  numerous  army.  He  was  pitted  against  the  two 
greatest  of  the  Southern  generals  in  conjunction,  Lee  and 
Jackson.  Instead  of  waiting  in  his  secure  position  for  an 

'  Ludwig  Blenker  was  born  in  1812  at  Worms.  In  1848  he  was  colonel  of 
the  militia  of  his  native  state,  and  in  1849  he  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
revolutionary  party,  and  actively  engaged  in  the  campaigns  of  the  revolution, 
in  Hessen  and  Baden.  After  the  suppression  of  the  revolution  he  came 
to  America.  In  April,  1861,  he  recruited  the  Eighth  New  York  Volunteer 
Regiment  and  brought  it  to  Washington.  Their  camp  in  front  of  Washing- 
ton grew  in  numbers  to  a  brigade,  then  to  a  division,  and  might  have  become 
a  full  army  corps.  It  was  through  Blenker's  demand  to  organize  and  lead 
it  that  McClellan  was  obliged  to  administer  a  reproof  which  led  finally  to 
Blenker's  resignation  from  active  service.  Rosengarten,  p.  192. 

*  Kettell,  Complete  History  of  the  Great  American  Rebellion,  vol.  i,  p.  172. 


544  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

attack,  Hooker  advanced  for  a  flanking  movement  around 
Lee's  army.  Lee  and  Jackson  at  the  same  time  planned  a 
flanking  movement  around  Hooker's  right.  Jackson,  with 
thirty  thousand  men,  started  on  a  march,  which  took  him 
halfway  around  the  Union  army.  His  design  was  to  attack 
and  surprise  the  Eleventh  Corps  under  General  Howard. 
Jackson's  column  was  seen  by  the  Union  forces,  but  its 
movement  was  misunderstood  by  Hooker  and  Howard, 
who  thought  that  Jackson  was  retiring  before  the  Union 
forces,  superior  in  numbers.  Even  the  capture  of  some 
rebels,  who  declared  that  Jackson  was  bent  on  fighting,  not 
retreating,  failed  to  convince  the  commanding  general. 
Neither  would  Howard  be  convinced.  Carl  Schurz,  who 
commanded  a  division  in  the  Eleventh  Corps,  urged  upon 
Howard  that  the  facts  pointed  unmistakably  to  an  attack 
from  the  west  upon  their  right  and  rear.  He  advised 
a  change  of  front  in  order  to  be  prepared  for  it.  But 
Howard  would  issue  no  such  command,  although  Schurz 
on  his  own  responsibility  did  change  the  position  of  two 
of  his  regiments,  seeing  the  danger  imminent.  The  Elev- 
enth Corps  had  been  further  weakened  by  the  detachment 
of  a  brigade,  on  an  order  from  headquarters,  for  the  sup- 
port of  Sickles.^ 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  after  a  march  of  fif- 
teen miles,  Jackson  reached  a  point  west  of  the  Union 
army,  directly  opposite  the  position  occupied  by  General 
Lee.  His  troops  were  quickly  ready,  and  soon  after  five 
he  gave  the  order  to  advance.  The  Eleventh  Corps  was 
not  prepared;  some  of  the  men  were  getting  their  supper 
ready,  others  were  resting,  or  amusing  themselves  with 
cards.  The  forest  in  front  of  them  was  just  thick  enough 

^  Tbe  above  statements  are  taken  from  J.  H.   Rhodes,  History  of  the 
United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850,  vol.  iv,  p.  261. 


IN  THE   CIVIL   WAR  545 

to  screen  the  approaching  enemy,  but  not  to  impede  their 
progress.  The  warning  came  from  the  wild  rush  of  deer 
and  rabbits  driven  from  their  hiding-places  by  the  quick 
step  of  the  Confederates  through  the  woods. 

Twenty-six  thousand  of  Jackson's  men,  "  the  best  infantry  in 
existence,  as  tough,  hardy,  and  full  of  spirit  as  they  ai-e  ill-fed, 
ill-clothed,  and  ill-looking,"  surprised  less  than  half  their  number. 
The  officers  and  men  of  the  Eleventh  Corps  in  the  main  did 
well.  What  can  be  expected  of  new  troops  taken  by  surprise 
and  attacked  in  front,  flank,  and  rear  at  once?  ^ 

Devens's  division  was  one  of  the  first  to  yield,  and  thereby 
confused  Schurz's  men.  Some  of  Schurz's  regiments  stood 
firm,  others  fell  back,  but  nowhere  could  a  line  stand  long 
asrainst  the  terrible  onset.  No  orgfanization  was  left  in 
the  Eleventh  Corps,  with  the  exception  of  one  brigade  of 
Steinwehr's  division.^ 

Buschbeck  has  been  speedily  forming  by  a  change  of  front 
before  Devens  and  Schurz  have  left  the  field.  Dilger's  battery 
trains  some  of  its  guns  down  the  road.  The  reserve  artillery  is 
already  in  position  at  the  north  of  this  line,  and  issues  spherical 
case  with  rapidity.  Howard  and  his  staff  are  in  the  thickest  of 
the  fray,  endeavoring  to  stem  the  tide.  As  well  oppose  resistance 
to  an  avalanche.  Buschbeck's  line  stubbornly  holds  on.  An  oc- 
casional squad,  still  clinging  to  the  colors  of  its  regiment,  joins 
itself  to  him,  ashamed  of  falling  thus  disgracefully  to  the  rear. 
Officers  making  frantic  exertions  to  rally  their  men;  useless 
effort.^ 

The  conclusion  which  Colonel  Dodge  reaches,  in  regard 
to  the  service  of  the  corps,  is  as  follows :  — 

All  reliable  authorities  put  the  time  of  the  attack  at  six  p.  M. 
When  the  last  gun  was  fired  by  the  Buschbeck  rifle-pits,  it  was 

1  Rhodes,  vol.  iv,  pp.  261-262. 

^  T.  A.  Dodge,  The  Campaign  of  Chancellorsville,  pp.  94  ff.  (Boston,  1881.) 

3  Dodge,  pp.  94^95. 


546  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

dusk,  at  that  season  about  quarter-past  seven.  It  seems  reason- 
ably settled  therefore  that  the  corps  retarded  the  Confederate 
advance  for  about  a  mile  of  ground  for  exceeding  an  hour.  How 
much  more  can  be  expected  of  ten  thousand  raw  troops  telescoped 
by  twenty-five  thousand  veterans  ?  ^ 

Carl  Schurz  has  given  a  report  of  the  attack  on  the 
Eleventh  Corps  which  has  been  commonly  praised  for  its 
frankness  and  accuracy,  and  which  at  the  same  time  defends 
the  German  soldier  against  the  injustice  showered  upon 
him  by  the  partisan  press  of  that  day. 

Even  if  the  charge  of  panic  and  failure  of  spirit  on  this 
one  occasion  were  justified,  as  it  is  not,  the  same  corps 
gave  abundant  proof  of  its  sterner  fibre  on  succeeding 
battlefields.  The  most  noteworthy  instance  of  all  occurred 
in  the  battle  of  Lookout  Mountain.  General  Thomas  re- 
marked, in  congratulating  Hooker  on  his  victory  at  Look- 
out Mountain,  that  "the  bayonet  charge  of  Howard's 
troops,  made  up  the  side  of  a  steep  and  difficult  hill  over 
two  hundred  feet  high,  completely  routing  and  driving 
the  enemy  from  its  barracks  on  its  top,  will  rank  with 
the  most  distinguished  feats  of  arms  of  this  war."  ^ 

The  attack  by  Jackson's  and  Lee's  forces  at  Chancel- 
lorsville  was  renewed  next  day  and  ended  in  the  total 
defeat  of  Hooker's  army.  The  Confederate  loss,  however, 
was  greater  than  the  defeat  which  the  Union  cause  sus- 
tained, because  of  the  death  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  prob- 
ably the  ablest  Heutenant  of  the  war.  The  victory  at 
Chancellorsville  meant  a  great  deal  to  the  Confederate 
army,  and  encouraged  General  Lee  to  carry  the  war  into 
the  enemy's  country.    The  invasion  of  Pennsylvania  fol- 

1  Dodge,  p.  96. 

2  Dodge,  p.  104.  The  author  adds, "  And  it  is  asserted  that  this  encomium 
was  well  earned  and  that  no  portion  of  it  need  be  set  down  to  encourage- 
ment." 


lowed.  Fate  had  in  store  for  the  Eleventh  Corps  another 
reverse  against  superior  numbers,  in  which,  however,  their 
determined  stand  against  the  victorious  enemy  was  of  vital 
importance  for  the  final  outcome.  It  was  on  the  first  day 
of  the  great  battle  of  Gettysburg,  where  in  the  end  the 
seemingly  invincible  army  of  Lee  was  doomed  to  meet 
its  first  defeat. 

The  First  and  Eleventh  corps  came  upon  the  van  of 
General  Lee's  forces  under  A.  P.  Hill.  General  Reynolds, 
in  command  of  the  First  Corps,  attacked  the  Confederates 
fiercely,  but  the  latter  developed  such  numbers  that  Rey- 
nolds's men  were  repulsed  and  the  brave  general  himself 
killed.  General  0.  0.  Howard  became  the  senior  officer  on 
the  field,  and  obeying  General  Reynolds's  instructions, 
hastened  his  Eleventh  Corps  to  the  field  of  action.  The 
Union  troops  were  hard-pressed,  and  it  is  said  the  death 
of  General  Reynolds  caused  much  confusion  as  to  who 
was  properly  in  command.^  The  two  great  points  of 
achievement  in  the  first  day's  battle  on  the  Union  side 
were,  first,  the  holding  back  of  the  enemy  long  enough 
for  the  Federal  forces  to  concentrate  at  Gettysburg,  and 
secondly,  the  selection  of  advantageous  ground  for  de- 
fense. The  former  duty  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  First  and 
Eleventh  corps,  which  did  as  well  as  could  be  expected 
against  superior  numbers.  After  the  death  of  Reynolds, 
the  larger  share  fell  to  the  Eleventh  Corps,  which  was 
fresher,  and  then  under  the  command  of  Carl  Schurz.  Upon 
the  arrival  of  Ewell  and  after  a  severe  engagement,  the 
Federals  were  driven  back  through  the  town  of  Gettys- 

'  Buford's  opinion  was  that  "  there  seemed  to  be  no  directing  person.  All 
was  confusion  and  looked  like  disaster  when  Hancock  arrived  on  the  field. 
On  hearing  that  Reynolds  was  killed,  Meade,  with  his  excellent  judgment 
of  the  right  man  for  the  place,  sent  Hancock  to  take  the  command."  Rhodes, 
vol.  iv,  p.  283. 


548  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

burg  with  heavy  loss,  but  were  not  pursued,  Hill  and  Ewell 
waiting  for  Longstreet.  The  check  to  the  enemy's  advance 
was  well  worth  all  the  losses  which  the  Eleventh  Corps 
sustained.  Shattered,  well-nigh  annihilated,  its  purpose,  of 
giving  the  rest  of  the  army  time  to  concentrate,  was  served. 
The  famous  fish-hook  position  was  selected,  formed  by 
Gulp's  Hill,  Gemetery  Ridge,  and  Round  Top.  The  credit 
for  the  choice  has  been  variously  assigned  to  Hancock  and 
Howard.  Perhaps  Reynolds  gauged  its  value  as  he  hurried 
through  the  town  to  stem  the  approaching  tide.^  Hancock, 
arriving  on  the  battlefield  in  the  afternoon,  gave  the  com- 
mand to  fortify  Gulp's  Hill,  to  the  right  of  the  position 
taken  by  Stemwehr's  brigade  and  what  was  left  of  the 
Eleventh  Gorps.  Howard  claims  to  have  selected  the  posi- 
tion of  Gemetery  Ridge  himself,  as  a  nucleus  for  the 
Eleventh  Corps,  in  case  they  were  forced  to  retreat.  In 
his  own  words  :  ^ 

I  then  rode  slowly  to  the  position  Meizenburg  and  I  had  agreed 
upon  as  a  good  one,  near  the  cemetery  gate,  where  very  soon  I 
met  General  Carl  Schurz  in  person,  who  had  hastened  on  to  see 
me  ;  and  I  instructed  him  as  soon  as  the  troops  should  arrive  to 
place  his  reserve  batteries  and  Steinwebr's  division  in  support 
on  those  heights  and  to  send  his  other  two  divisions,  Barlow's 
and  his  own,  now  Schimmelpfennig's,  to  the  right  of  Doubleday's 
corps,  as  relief. 

He  refers  to  the  position  mainly  on  Cemetery  Ridge  occu- 
pied by  Steinwehr.  This  does  not  affect  the  credit  given 
Hancock  for  developing  the  entire  position  for  the  Union 
army,  nor  for  his  making  a  display  of  his  forces  on  the 
ridges,  thereby  deceiving  Lee  as  to  his  strength  and  pre- 

1  Cf.  T.  A.  Dodge,  A  Bird's-Eye  View  of  Our  Civil  War,  p.  137. 
^  O.  O.  Howard,  Campaign  and  Battle  of  Gettysburg,   Atlantic  Monthly, 
July,  1876,  p.  54. 


IN  THE   CIVIL  WAR  549 

venting  an  attack  that  day.  It  has  been  claimed  for  Gen- 
eral Steinwehr  ^  that  he  called  General  Howard's  attention 
to  the  high  ground  on  Cemetery  Ridge,  and  advised  in- 
trenching, instead  of  advancing  against  the  enemy,  as 
Reynolds  had  done.^  General  Howard  says  of  Steinwehr's 
services : ' 

I  must  speak  of  General  Steinwehr.  He  came  upon  the  field 
with  a  hearty  spirit,  ready  to  do  his  part.  During  the  retreat 
he  kept  his  men  steadily  in  position  on  Cemetery  Ridge  as  a 
nucleus,  on  which  the  line  of  battle,  probably  the  most  important 
in  the  annals  of  our  war,  was  formed. 

It  is  claimed  *  for  Steinwehr  that  his  tenacious  hold  on 
his  ground  was  executed  in  opposition  to  his  superiors. 
At  one  time  General  Schurz's  division  was  hard-pressed, 
and  the  latter  implored  aid  of  his  superior.  General  How- 
ard, who  was  ready  to  send  the  only  brigade  that  was 
left,  viz.,  that  of  Steinwehr.  The  latter,  reasoning  that 
his  own  brigade  would  meet  the  same  fate  as  the  rest  of 
the  corps,  and  that  by  remaining  in  his  position  he  could 
save  them  from  a  rout,  referred   the  matter  to  General 

1  General  Adolph  von  Steinwehr  was  born  in  1822,  at  Blankenburg,  in 
the  Duchy  of  Brunswick,  Germany.  He  was  of  a  family  of  soldiers.  After 
coming  to  America  he  took  part  in  the  Mexican  War  in  an  Alabama  volun- 
teer regiment.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  recruited  a  German 
regiment  of  volunteers  in  New  York.  He  rendered  distinguished  service  at 
the  battles  of  Bull  Run,  Chancellorsville,  Chattanooga,  and  elsewhere.  He 
commanded  the  Second  Division  of  the  Eleventh  Corps.  In  the  Shenandoah 
Valley  he  adopted  stringent  methods  against  bushwhackers,  taking  hostages 
as  security  against  them.  The  Confederate  government  declared  that  if  cap- 
tured he  had  lost  the  right  to  parole.  After  the  war  he  prepared  maps  of  the 
United  States  for  Stieler's  Atlas  and  the  Centennial  Gazetteer  of  the  United 
States,  in  1876.  Yale  College  distinguished  him  with  an  honorary  degree. 

*  Cf.  New  York  Herald :  "  It  was  Steinwehr's  coup  d'ceil,  which  first  re- 
cognized the  importance  of  this  hill."  The  date,  February  27,  1877,  given 
for  this  quotation  by  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  p.  99,  the  writer  found  to 
be  incorrect.  He  has  not  yet  been  able  to  find  the  correct  date. 

'  O.  O.  Howard,  p.  60.  *  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  ix,  p.  103. 


550  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Hancock,  "^ho  had  just  arrived  ou  the  field,,  and  who  then 
ordered  Stein wehr  to  remain. 

After  the  retreat  of  the  forces  of  the  First  and  Eleventh 
corps  through  the  town  of  Gettysburg',  they  were  formed 
as  follows :  — 

AVadsworth's  division  of  the  First  Corps  stayed  and  fortified 
Ciilp's  Hill,  where  Hancock  placed  it.  Ames's  division  of  the 
Eleventh  Corps  carried  on  the  line  to  the  steep  part  of  Cemetery 
Rido-e,  facino;  northwards.  Then  came  Schurz's  and  Steinwehr's 
divisions  behind  the  famous  stone  wall  and  the  apple  orchard 
near  town.  Doubleday's  and  Robinson's  divisions,  First  Corps, 
were  next,  etc.^ 

There  was  a  nio-ht  eno-ao-ement  on  the  Cemetery  Ridsre, 
which  General  Howard  describes  as  follows  :  — 

"When  we  supposed  we  should  have  rest  for  the  night,  some 
troops  in  our  front,  said  to  be  the  '*  Louisiana  Tigers."  sprang 
from  their  cover  on  the  steep  hill  on  the  north  end  of  Cemetery 
Ridee,  broke  throug^h  Ames's  division,  and  in  three  minutes 
were  upon  our  batteries,  Wiedrick's  and  others,  almost  without 
fii'inof  a  shot.  General  Schurz  bv  mv  order  sent  a  portion  of  the 
brigade  under  Colonel  Krizanowski  [composed  of  Germans]  to 
the  battery's  immediate  relief  :  the  artillervmen  left  their  <i:uns, 
and  used  sponge-staffs,  handspikes,  or  anything  they  could  lav 
hold  of,  to  beat  back  the  enemy,  and  as  soon  as  help  came  the 
batteries  were  cleared.  Schurz  also  sent  a  brigade  further  to 
the  right  to  help  General  Greene,  who  requested  reinforce- 
ments—  Generals  Steinwehr  and  Newton  immediately  filled 
any  gaps  made  on  my  left  by  sudden  withdrawals.- 

Thinkiug  that  he  had  secured  a  strong  foothold  on  the 
Federal  lines.  General  Lee  on  the  third  day  ordered  the 
famous  attack  on  the  centre  of  the  L'nion  forces,  known  as 
'•Pickett's  Charge."  The  Second  Corps  stood  the  brunt  of 
that  tremendous  onslauo-ht.   General  Hancock  was  in  com- 

1  0.  0.  Howard,  siipra,  pp.  61-62.  '  Ibid.,  p.  65. 


IN   THE  CIVIL  WAR  551 

mand,  "  the  best  tactician  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac," 
possessed  of  the  same  courage  as  Pickett,  and  an  inspira- 
tion to  his  men. 

In  the  last  assault,  Armistead,  a  brigade  commander,  pressed 
forward,  leaped  the  stone  wall,  waved  his  sword  with  his  hat  on 
it,  shouted,  "  Give  them  the  cold  steel,  boys,"  and  laid  his  hands 
upon  a  gun.  A  hundred  of  his  men  had  followed.  They  planted 
the  Confederate  battle-flags  on  Cemetery  Ridge  among  the  can- 
non they  had  captured,  and  for  the  moment  held.  Armistead 
was  shot  down ;  Garnett  and  Kemper,  Pickett's  other  brigadiers, 
fell.  The  wavering  divisions  of  Hill's  corps  seemed  appalled, 
broke  their  ranks,  and  fell  back.* 

The  historian  of  the  Civil  War,  J.  F.  Rhodes,  exclaims 
after  his  description  of  the  battle,  "  Decry  war  as  we  may 
and  ought,  '  breathes  there  the  man  with  soul  so  dead ' 
who  would  not  thrill  with  emotion  to  claim  for  his  coun- 
trymen the  men  who  made  that  charge  and  the  men  who 
met  it?"' 

In  the  Second  Corps,  commanded  by  Hancock,  there 
were  a  number  of  Pennsylvania  regiments,  in  which  the 
representation  of  Germans  by  descent,  native  in  this 
country,  was  very  large;  e.  g.,  the  Sixty-ninth  Pennsyl- 
vania, with  Lieutenant-Colonel  M.  Tschudy  (German  Swiss 
name),  who  was  killed  in  the  battle ;  also  the  Seventy- 
first  and  Seventy-second  Pennsylvania  regiments,  the 
latter  with  Lieutenant-Colonel  Hesser  (a  German  name). 
These  regiments  belonged  to  the  Second  Division,  which, 
with  the  Third  Division,  bore  the  brunt  of  the  attack. 
In  the  Third  Division,  First  Brigade,  there  were  several 
Ohio  regiments  which  also  contained  many  representatives 

*  "  The  Federals  swarmed  around  Pickett,"  writes  Longstreet,  "  attacked 
on  all  sides,  involving  and  breaking  up  bis  command."  Rhodes,  p.  289. 
2  Rhodes,  p.  290. 


652  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  Germans  by  descent.  The  Fourth  Ohio,  with  Colonel 
L.  W.  Carpenter  (perhaps  the  family  Zimmermann,  who 
hailed  from  Virginia) ;  also  the  Eighth  Ohio,  and  the 
Fourteenth  Indiana,  commanded  by  Colonel  John  Coons 
(a  typical  Pennsylvania-German  name);  also  the  Seventh 
West  Virginia,  commanded  by  Colonel  Snyder  (a  Dutch 
name  which  appears  frequently  among  the  German  set- 
tlers of  West  Virginia).  The  defense  on  Cemetery  Ridge 
was  carried  on  mainly  by  the  divisions  of  Steinwehr  and 
Schurz. 

But  as  the  historian  Rhodes  has  pointed  out,  the  glory 
of  the  defense  was  not  one  whit  greater  than  that  of  the 
attack  by  the  Confederate  regiments,  and  it  ought  ever 
to  fill  the  hearts  of  German- Americans  with  pride  to  know 
that  two  of  the  ablest  of  Pickett's  generals  were  of  Ger- 
man blood.  They  were  the  two  mentioned  in  the  quotation 
above  as  entering  the  lines  on  Cemetery  Ridge,  the  one. 
General  L.  A.  Armistead,  losing  his  life,  and  the  other. 
General  Kemper,  being  severely  wounded.  Armistead  had 
already  proved  his  temper  in  the  Mexican  War,  for  at  the 
storming  of  Chapultepec  he  was  "the  first  to  leap  into  the 
Great  Ditch."  His  record  in  the  Civil  War  had  been  ex- 
traordinary ;  at  Seven  Pines  and  at  Malvern  Hill  he  proved 
himself  the  bravest  of  the  brave.  He  had  also  served  in 
the  Indian  War  in  Florida,  under  his  father,  General 
W.  K.  Armistead.^  General  James  L.  Kemper  was  com- 
mander of  the  Third  Brigade  of  Pickett's  Division,  was 
likewise  a  veteran  of  the  Mexican  War,  and  then  served 

^  Brigadier-General  Louis  A.  Armistead  was  born  in  Newbern,  North 
Carolina,  February  18,  1817.  The  family  was  distinguished  for  its  military 
service,  and  was  German.  A  member  of  the  family,  George  Armistead,  has 
already  been  named  as  the  defender  of  Baltimore  against  the  British  fleet 
in  1814.  Cf.  Schuricht,  History  of  the  German  Element  in  Virginia,  vol.  ii, 
p.  81,  etc.  The  name  was  originally  Armstadt. 


IN   THE   CIVIL   WAR  553 

with  distinction  in  the  Confederate  army ;  notably  at  the 
battles  of  Manassas,  South  Mountain,  Antietam,  Freder- 
icksburg, and  Marye's  Heights.  He  was  carried  off  severely 
wounded  after  the  great  charge  at  Gettysburg,  but  recov- 
ered and  was  placed  in  command  later  of  the  forces  at 
Richmond.  He  was  governor  of  Virginia  from  1873-1878.* 
The  deeds  of  the  Eleventh  Corps  do  not  shine  as  brilliantly 
at  Gettysburg  as  those  of  the  Second  Corps  who  resisted  the 
great  attack  of  the  third  day.  Their  usefulness,  however, 
was  quite  as  great.  In  the  words  of  General  Howard  :  — 

The  First  and  Eleventh  corps  and  Buford's  small  division  of 
cavalry  did  wonders  ;  held  the  vast  army  of  Lee  in  check  a  day  ; 
took  up  a  strong  position  ;  fought  themselves  into  it,  and  kept 
it  for  the  approaching  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  occupy  with 
them,  so  as  to  meet  the  foe  with  better  prospects  of  victory. 
General  Lee  saw  our  position,  was  deceived  as  to  our  numbers, 
and  therefore  waited  for  the  remainder  of  his  army  before  re- 
attacking;  but  the  battle  cost  them  many  valuable  lives.  ^ 

The  day  was  still  to  come  when  the  Eleventh  Corps 
was  to  be  favored  by  fortune,  when  its  fighting  powers 
were  also  to  receive  the  popular  applause.  The  latter,  in- 
deed, was  a  fickle  thing  to  reckon  with,  for  not  only  were 
foreign  soldiers  and  generals  roundly  abused  in  the  news- 
papers, but  everybody  alike  was  exposed  to  similar  impa- 
tient criticism  during  the  war.  The  public  in  the  South 
were  at  times  as  severe  critics  as  in  the  North,  and  even 
General  Lee  did  not  escape  censure.  That  notable  com- 
mander, on  taking  leave  of  his  veterans  at  Appomattox, 

*  General  Kemper  was  descended  from  one  of  the  oldest  German  settlers 
in  Virginia,  who  settled  at  Germanna  under  the  auspices  of  Governor  Spots- 
wood,  in  1714.  Cf.  Schuricht,  vol.  i,  p.  67  ;  also  the  Virginia  Magazine,  vol. 
ix.  Cf.  also  Chapter  vii,  above. 

'  O.  O.  Howard,  supra,  p.  60.  It  is  frequently  surmised  that  had  Lee  at- 
tacked on  the  first  day,  he  could  have  carried  the  Union  position,  but  he 
was  not  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  ridges  were  not  strongly  fortified. 


554  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

said,  "  I  have  done  the  best  I  could  do  for  you."  It  was 
often  so  with  the  regiments  who  tried  their  best,  but  were 
ill  favored  by  fortune.  If  they  fought  long  enough,  as  did 
the  Eleventh  Corps,  their  lucky  day  was  bound  to  come. 

Howard's  corps,  consisting  of  the  two  divisions  of 
Schurz  and  Steinwehr,  was  joined  to  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland  and  destined  to  aid  very  materially  in  the 
glorious  campaigns  about  Chattanooga.  The  Eleventh  and 
Twelfth  corps  being  joined  together,  now  named  the 
Twentieth,  were  placed  under  the  command  of  the  able 
General  Thomas,  and  became  one  of  the  most  notable 
sections  of  the  Federal  army.  Lookout  Mountain  reestab- 
lished the  good  name  of  General  Hooker,  who  had  once 
caused  the  disgrace  of  the  Eleventh  Corps.  In  the  "  Battle 
above  the  Clouds,"  as  it  is  frequently  called,  Hooker's 
troops  captured  every  one  of  the  enemy's  positions.  It 
was  the  lucky  day  for  the  German  soldiers.  Probably  the 
most  conspicuous  of  the  assaults  was  the  bayonet  charge 
of  Howard's  troops,  consisting  of  Steinwehr's  and  Schurz's 
divisions.  As  above  mentioned,  it  was  made  up  the  side  of 
a  steep  and  difficult  hill,  —  according  to  the  description 
of  General  Thomas,  an  ascent  over  two  hundred  feet 
high, — and  the  enemy  were  completely  routed  and  driven 
from  their  barracks  at  the  top.* 

The  most  remarkable  achievement  in  the  campaign 
about  Chattanooga,  and  one  that  stands  out  among  all  the 
glorious  deeds  of  the  war,  was  the  storming  of  Mission- 
ary Ridge.  General  Grant  had  commanded  the  troops  to 
move  forward  and  drive  the  enemy  from  the  rifle-pits  at 
the  base  of  the  ridge,  and  there  intrench  before  going 
further.    On  arriving  there  and  dislodging  the  enemy, 

*  General  Thomas  saj's  this  will  rank  among  the  most  distinguished  feats 
of  arms  of  the  war.  Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1876,  p.  210. 


IN  THE   CIVIL  WAR  555 

they  encountered  a  terrible  volley  of  grape  and  canister 
from  nearly  thirty  pieces  of  artillery  on  the  summit  of 
the  ridge.  Spontaneously,  and  with  a  desire  to  balance  up 
past  defeats,  and  a  certain  jealousy  for  the  glory,  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland,  as  if  by  a  sudden  impulse, 
moved  upward,  following  the  defeated  enemy  and  arriv- 
ing at  the  second  line  almost  as  soon  as  the  fleeing  Con- 
federates. On  and  on  they  continued  to  the  crest  of  the 
hill,  never  wavering  until  the  enemy  was  completely 
routed.  General  Grant  observed  the  movement  with  ad- 
miration and  amazement,  as  it  was  performed  without 
orders.  This  gallant  advance  has  been  compared  with 
Pickett's  charge  at  Gettysburg,  but  the  results  were  dif- 
ferent for  the  attacking  party.  The  latter  numbered  about 
thirty  thousand  effective  men,  in  the  divisions  of  Baird, 
T.  J.  Wood,  Sheridan,  and  Johnson.  Examining  the  roster 
of  the  divisions  engaged,  we  find  a  number  of  German 
regiments  among  them ;  e.  g.,  in  Sheridan's  division,  General 
G.  D.  Wagner's  brigade,  consisting  of  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Michigan,  and  Ohio  regiments.  In  Wood's  division  there 
was  the  brigade  of  General  Willich,^  containing  Illinois, 

^  General  August  Willieh  was  of  a  Prussian  family,  born  in  the 
province  of  Posen,  Prussia,  in  1810.  His  father  was  a  captain  of  hussars, 
and  the  son,  though  he  departed  from  the  traditions  of  the  family  in  poli- 
tics, did  not  in  the  choice  of  his  profession.  He  joined  the  revolutionists  in 
Baden  in  1848,  and  was  there  with  Hecker  and  Sigel.  During  the  Civil 
War  he  first  joined  a  German  regiment  in  Cincinnati,  later  was  made  captain 
of  the  Thirty-second  Indiana  Regiment  (also  called  the  First  German).  He 
distinguished  himself  under  General  Buell  in  Kentucky  ;  also  in  the  battle 
of  Shiloh,  where  he  was  instrumental  in  the  rescue  of  Grant's  army.  For  his 
decisive  bayonet  attack  he  was  made  a  brigadier-general.  He  served  under 
Rosecrans,  and  in  one  of  the  aggressive  movements  was  taken  prisoner,  but 
was  exchanged  after  four  months.  He  took  prominent  part  in  the  battles  of 
Liberty  Gap  (cf.  Records  of  the  Rehellion,  vol.  vii.  Doc.  p.  409)  and  Chicka- 
mauga,  and  after  the  taking  of  Missionary  Ridge  was  sent  to  Texas.  It  is 
interesting  to  know  that  Willich  in  1870  offered  his  services  to  the  King  of 

\ 


556  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

Indiana,  Kansas,  Ohio,  and  Wisconsin  regiments.  A  very 
large  portion  of  his  brigade  was  made  up  of  German  sol- 
diers ;  e.  g.,  the  Thirty-second  Indiana,  Forty-ninth  Ohio,^ 
and  Fifteenth  Wisconsin.  General  Willich  and  his  brigade 
took  active  part  in  the  storming  of  Missionary  Ridge. 

It  is  impossible  to  take  account  of  any  considerable 
number  of  the  German  regiments  in  the  Civil  War.  They 
appeared  in  most  of  the  army  corps,  and  it  is  safe  to  say 
in  every  battle  from  1861  to  1865.  Just  as  much  will  it 
be  impossible  to  give  a  complete  record  of  the  deeds  of 
the  German  officers  during  the  war.  A  very  interesting 
group,  which  should  not  be  omitted,  were  the  refugees 
who  had  served  as  officers  in  the  German  revolution  of 
1848.  Some  of  them  have  already  been  mentioned,  such 
as  Sigel,  Hecker,  Blenker,  Engelmann,  Willich,  and  last 
but  not  least,  Carl  Scliurz.  Of  these,  Sigel  probably 
became  most  prominent  as  a  commander  in  the  Civil 
War.  He  and  Hecker  had  been  the  two  leadinof  mili- 
tary  figures  in  the  South  German  uprising  in  1848-49. 
Hecker  had  proclaimed  the  republic.  Sigel,  Blenker, 
and  Hecker  controlled  the  military  movements  until  the 
revolutionists  were  scattered  to  the  four  winds,  on  the 
approach  of  the  Prussian  army.  Their  experience  in  actual 
campaigning  stood  them  in  good  stead  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out.  Sigel's  services  were  invaluable  in  Mis- 
souri. Though  he  was  less  successful  in  the  Shenandoah 

Prussia,  though  he  was  once  a  "  forty-eighter."  His  offer  was  appreciated, 
but  declined  with  thanks.  When  sixty  years  of  age  he  matriculated  as  a 
student  of  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Berlin.  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier, 
vol.  ix,  pp.  439  ff.,  488  ff. 

1  The  Ninth  Ohio  (the  First  German)  also  took  part  in  this  battle  as  well 
as  in  the  entire  campaign  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  1863-64.  This 
regiment  consisted  very  largely  of  German  soldiers.  Cf.  Die  Neuner.  Eine 
Schilderung  der  Kriegsjahre  des  Dten  Regiment  Ohio  Vol.  Infanterie,  1861-18G4- 
Mit  einer  EinleiLung  v.  Oberst  Gustav  Tafel.  (Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1897.) 


IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR  557 

Valley,  still  lie  did  as  well  as  any  other  general  except 
Sheridan.  Hecker,  concerning  whom  General  Howard  says, 
"Colonel  Hecker,  whose  name  I  never  mention  without 
a  feeling  of  respect  for  his  uniform  loyalty  and  courage," 
might  have  stood  out  more  brilliantly  if  he  had  not  been 
severely  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville.  Though 
wounded  and  not  young  (born  in  1811),  he  continued  as 
the  commander  of  the  Eighty-second  Illinois  Regiment 
during  the  campaign  of  Chattanooga  under  General 
Grant,  after  which  he  retired.  He  returned  to  his  farm 
and  remained  an  imposing  figure,  a  fine  type  of  soldier 
and  country  gentleman. 

A.  A.  Engelmann,  who  came  to  America  at  the  age  of 
nine  years,  with  his  father,  served  in  the  Mexican  War, 
and  when  the  Revolution  of  1848  broke  out  sailed  for 
Germany  to  take  part  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  He  returned, 
after  the  failure  of  the  revolutionary  party,  to  Belleville, 
Illinois.  In  the  Civil  War  he  became  the  colonel  of  the 
Forty-third  Illinois  Regiment,  after  his  predecessor,  J.  C. 
Raith,  had  fallen  in  the  battle  of  Shiloh.  The  regiment 
had  been  organized  by  Gustav  Korner,  subsequently 
lieutenant-governor  of  Illinois,  one  of  the  most  influential 
Germans  in  the  state,  and  an  ardent  supporter  of  the 
Union  cause. 

Besides  those  already  mentioned  there  were  a  very  large 
number  of  other  German  officers  in  the  Northern  army 
during  the  Civil  War,  whose  previous  training  in  the  Ger- 
man army  was  of  great  service  to  the  Federal  cause.  Their 
experience  and  example  were  of  particular  importance  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  war,  when  it  was  necessary  to  create  a  dis- 
ciplined army  out  of  raw  material,  and  prove  to  the  native 
American  volunteers  the  necessity  of  strict  adherence  to 
military  routine.  Some  of  the  German  officers  were  soldiers 


558  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

of  fortune ;  most  of  them,  however,  had  settled  in  this 
country  before  the  war,  and  entered  the  army  merely  from 
patriotic  motives.  Such  was  August  Moor,  a  veteran  of 
the  Mexican  War  and  colonel  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Ohio. 
He  was  born  in  Leipsic  in  1814,  came  to  this  country  in 
1843,  and  during  the  war  rose  to  a  brigadier-generalship  ^ 
as  a  reward  for  gallant  service.  Similarly  the  Missouri 
officers,  Osterhaus  and  Hassendeubel,  entered  the  army 
to  help  save  the  Union.  Their  initial  step  was  to  rescue 
Missouri,  with  Sigel  and  others.  Osterhaus,  a  native  of 
Coblenz,  arrived  in  America  in  1849.  After  distinguished 
service  in  Missouri,  Tennessee,  and  Georgia,  he  was  m^de 
a  major-general  and  served  under  General  Sherman  in  his 
march  to  the  sea.  He  was  chief  of  staff  to  General  Canby 
at  the  surrender  of  the  army  of  General  Kirby  Smith  in 
May,  1865.^  Franz  Hassendeubel,  born  in  Rhenish  Bavaria 
in  1817,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1842.  He  served  in 
the  Mexican  War  from  beginning  to  end.  He  had  gone 
back  to  Germany,  but  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  re- 
turned to  the  United  States,  and  became  lieutenant-colonel 
of  Sigel's  Third  Missouri  Regiment.  He  constructed  the 
plans  for  the  defense  of  St.  Louis,  was  mortally  wounded 
during  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  and  died  July  16,  1863.^ 
Every  state  with  a  German  population  had  its  quota  of 
German  soldiers  and  officers  in  the  war.  There  was  Busch- 
beck,  friend  of  Steinwehr,  colonel  of  the  Twenty-seventh 
Pennsylvania,  who  stood  like  a  wall  at  Chancellorsville, 
when  almost  every  one  else  was  taking  to  flight,  who  was 

*  Cf.  H.  A.  Rattermann,  August. Moor.  (Reprint  from  Derdeutsche  Pionier.') 
^  In  1866  Osterhaus  was  appointed  American  consul  in  Lyons,  France. 
At  the  Republican  Convention  of  1904,  held  in  Chicago,  he  received  an  ova- 
tion as  he  appeared,  a  picturesque  old  warrior  and  one  of  the  original  mem- 
bers of  the  Republican  party. 
»  Rosengarten,  The  German  Soldier  in  the  Wars  of  the  United  States,  p.  244. 


IN   THE   CIVIL  WAR  559 

one  of  the  ablest  artillerymen  in  the  service,  and  was  warmly 
commended  as  such  by  Sherman  in  his  Southern  campaign. 
There  was  Von  Schrader,  colonel  of  the  Seventy-fourth 
Ohio,  Knobellsdorff  and  Kiifner  of  IlUnois  regiments, 
Von  Gilsa,  Schimmelpfennig,  and  Von  Amsberg,  each  com- 
manding a  New  York  regiment,  doing  valiant  service  at 
Gettysburg  and  elsewhere.  Colonel  Emile  Frey  was  an 
officer  of  Hecker's  Illinois  regiments,  the  Twenty-fourth 
and  Eighty-second.  He  was  a  Swiss  by  birth  and,  true  to 
his  blood,  was  a  good  shot  and  led  a  company  of  sharp- 
shooters.* Numerous  were  the  German  soldiers  and  offi- 
cers in  the  cavalry  and  artillery  regiments.  Thielemann's 
cavalry  battalion,  and  Hotaling's  company  of  the  Second 
Illinois  Cavalry,  and  StoUeman's  and  D'Osband's  and  Bum- 
bart's  artillery,  were  among  the  German  organizations 
that  frequently  received  honorable  mention  in  the  history 
of  the  Western  campaigns."  Joseph  Karge,  once  a  Prus- 
sian officer,  was  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  First,  and  colonel 
of  the  Second  New  Jersey  Cavalry,  and  commanded  the 
first  brigade  of  Grierson's  division  of  cavalry.^ 

But  even  more  distinguished  as  cavalry  leaders  than 
those  named,  were  Kautz,  Custer,  and  Von  Borcke.  The 
name  Kautz  is  one  of  distinction  in  the  American  army 
and  navy.  General  August  V.  Kautz  was  born  in  Baden 
in  1828,  and  settled  in  Ohio  when  but  a  boy.  At  the  out- 
break of  the  Mexican  War  he  joined  the  First  Ohio  Regi- 
ment and  was  rewarded  with  a  lieutenancy  in  the  regular 
army.  He  commanded  the  Sixth  Cavalry  under  McClellan 
in  the  Peninsular  Campaign  in  1862,  distinguished  him- 

1  Rosengarten,  pp.  234-235.  Colonel  Frey  later  became  the  diplomatic 
representative  of  his  native  country  at  Washington. 

2  Rosengarten,  pp.  232-233. 

'  After  the  war  he  was  a  professor  at  Princeton  University.  Rosengarten, 
p.  251. 


660  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

self  at  South  Mountain,  Petersburg,  and  Richmond.  He 
was  appointed  colonel  of  the  Second  Ohio  Cavalry,  chief 
of  cavalry  of  the  Twenty-third  Corps,  and  was  brevetted 
major-general  in  both  the  volunteer  and  regular  service. 
He  was  noted  for  his  cavalry  raids  in  Southern  Virginia 
during  the  year  1864.*  General  George  A.  Custer  was 
an  even  more  popular  figure,  a  fearless,  dashing  cavalry 
leader,  who  loved  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  He  distin- 
guished himself  as  commander  of  his  famous  Michigan 
brigade  at  Gettysburg.  He  also  won  fame  in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley  as  Sheridan's  right-hand  man.  An  account 
of  the  battles  of  Winchester,  Fisher's  Hill,  Cedar  Creek, 
Waynesboro,  Five  Forks,  and  Dinwiddle  Court  House  is 
impossible  without  a  narrative  of  his  deeds  of  valor."  On 
the  Confederate  side  there  was  likewise  a  distinp-uished 
cavalry  leader  in  Von  Borcke,  a  former  Prussian  officer 
and  chief  of  staff  of  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  commander 
of  the  Confederate  cavalry.  Heros  Von  Borcke  is  described 
as  a  jovial,  impulsive,  warm-hearted  man,  just  such  as 
would  win  the  hearts  of  the  Southern  soldiers.  General 
Stuart  commends  him  frequently  as  a  thorough  soldier 
and  splendid  officer.^ 

The  artillery  service  needs  special  training,  hence  for- 
eigners of  experience  were  much  sought  after  in  this  de- 
partment of  the  service.  Probably  the  most  prominent  of 
the  German  artillery  officers  was  Hugo  Dilger,  familiarly 
known  by  the  war  correspondents  as  *'Leather-breeches." 
He  commanded  an  independent  Ohio  battery,  and  there- 

*  Kautz  is  also  the  author  of  some  excellent  works  on  subjects  of  military 
science.  Cf.  Rosengarten,  p.  171. 

^  For  Custer's  birth,  descent,  and  later  career,  compare  above,  pp.  517- 
518. 

3  War  Department  of  the  Confederacy  Records.  Cf.  Rosengarten,  p.  179, 
etc.  Cf.  also  the  book  Ein  Reis  vom  alten  Stamm. 


IN  THE   CIVIL   WAR  561 

fore  never  obtained  a  higher  rank  than  that  of  captain, 
but  no  foreign  officer  performed  more  brilliant  service  or 
was  longer  in  the  fight.  His  battery  at  Chancellorsville, 
in  Buschbeck's  brigade,  impeded  the  victorious  Stonewall 
Jackson  for  probably  an  hour/  Wherever  the  Eleventh 
Corps  went,  Dilger's  guns  played  a  prominent  part.' 

The  name  of  Mordecai  is  intimately  associated  with  the 
history  of  ordnance  in  this  country.  Alfred  Mordecai  was 
chief  of  ordnance.  Army  of  the  James,  May  to  Sep- 
tember, 1864,  and  subsequently  in  the  Army  of  the  Ten- 
nessee, and  of  the  Cumberland,  till  July  4,  1865.  He  was 
a  graduate- of  West  Point  in  1861,  and  w'as  the  son  of 
Major  A.  Mordecai,  of  the  class  of  1823,  who  made  a 
brilliant  military  record.  Father  and  son  both  contributed 
to  the  science  of  ordnance  by  their  investigations,  their 
inventions,  and  publications.^ 

The  first  officer  of  the  regular  army  killed  in  the  war 
was  Lieutenant  John  T.  Greble,  of  the  Second  Artillery. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  German  by  descent 
(his  great-grandfather  having  been  a  native  of  Saxe- 
Gotha),  born  in  Philadelphia,  and  he  was  killed  in  action  at 
Big  Bethel,  Virginia,  in  June,  1861.  His  death  resulted 
from  his  self-sacrifice  for  the  lives  of  a  company  of  sol- 
diers imperiled  by  an  overwhelming  force.* 

Foreign  engineers  were  also  much  in  demand  in  the 

^  Cf.  Dodge,  The  Campaign  of  Chancellorsville,  p.  94,  etc. 

^  Captain  Dilger  had  resigned  a  lieutenancy  in  the  Baden  Mounted  Artil- 
lery, to  take  part  in  the  Civil  War.  After  its  close  he  became  a  farmer  ia 
the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Cf.  Rosengarten,  p.  284. 

3  Cf.  Rosengarten,  pp.  171-172.  Major  A.  Mordecai  was  sent  with  General 
McClellan  and  General  Delafield  to  the  Crimea  during  the  Russian  War 
of  1854.  His  grandfather  was  a  German. 

*  His  son,  Lieutenant  E.  S.  Greble,  graduated  from  West  Point  in  the 
class  of  1881,  and  served  in  the  Second  United  States  Artillery.  Cf.  Rosen- 
garten, p.  174. 


562  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

Federal  service,  and  among  them  we  meet  large  numbers 
of  German  names.  There  was  William  Heine,  born  in 
Dresden,  in  1827,  and  a  member  of  Perry's  expedition  to 
Japan.  After  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  entered 
the  Union  army  as  a  captain  of  engineers  and  advanced 
to  the  rank  of  brigadier  in  March,  1865.  General  Godfrey 
VVeitzel,  a  native  of  Germany,  graduated  at  West  Point 
in  1855.  He  planned  the  capture  of  New  Orleans  in  1862, 
commanded  a  division  at  Port  Hudson  and  in  the  Lafourche 
campaign.  He  superintended  the  construction  of  defenses 
at  Bermuda  Hundred,  James  River,  and  Deep  Bottom. 
He  commanded  a  corps  at  Fort  Harrison  in  1864,  and 
was  second  in  command  at  Fort  Fisher.  He  led  a  division 
under  Grant  in  the  final  conquest  of  Richmond,  and  com- 
manded all  the  forces  north  of  the  Potomac  after  March, 
1865.^  After  the  war  he  was  frequently  employed  in  his 
profession  of  engineer.  Another  example  of  an  engineer 
of  German  descent  was  General  Herman  Haupt,  born  in 
Philadelphia,  and  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1835. 
During  the  war  his  services  were  of  great  value  in  the 
field  and  subsequently  he  was  a  pioneer  in  railroad  building 
across  the  continent."  Count  Zeppelin,^  the  German  inventor 
of  the  dirigible  air-ship,  which  promises  to  revolutionize 
modern  methods  of  warfare  and  transportation,  served  as 

1  Cf.  Encyclopcedic  Dictionary  of  American  Reference,  vol.  ii,  p.  360,  and 
Rosengarten,  p.  175.  Rhodes,  vol.  v,  p.  179,  and  ff.,  gives  Weitzel  credit  for 
his  good  sense  and  tact  when  in  control  of  Richmond  ;  when  he  permitted 
the  churches  to  open  on  the  following  Sunday  "  on  the  general  condition 
that  no  disloyal  sentiments  should  be  uttered,"  he  was  obeying  Lincoln's 
verbal  instructions  "  to  let  them  "  (the  Richmond  people)  "  down  easy,"  but 
Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  incapable  of  generosity  to  a  prostrate  foe,  repri- 
manded Weitzel  for  following  Lincoln's  suggestion. 

*  Rosengarten,  p.  166. 

'  Subsequently  he  served  in  the  Prussian-Austrian  War  of  1866,  and  in 
the  Franco-German  W^ar  of  1870-71.  Since  1873  he  has  worked  steadily  at 
his  invention  of  the  dirigible  military  balloon. 


IN  THE   CIVIL  WAR  563 

cavalry  o£6.cer  and  engineer  in  the  Civil  War,  beginning 
in  1863.  He  made  his  first  experiments  and  his  first  as- 
cent in  a  military  balloon  in  this  country. 

Among  the  numerous  West  Point  graduates  of  German 
descent  who  served  with  distinction  in  the  Civil  War  the 
names  of  Heintzelman  and  Rosecrans  stand  out  before 
most  others.  General  S.  P.  Heintzelman  was  brevetted 
major  for  bravery  in  the  Mexican  War.  He  was  commis- 
sioned colonel  in  the  Civil  War  and  then  commanded  as 
brigadier  at  Alexandria,  Bull  Run,  Yorktown,  Williams- 
burg, and  Fair  Oaks ;  in  1863  he  commanded  the  North- 
ern Department.  He  was  retired  in  1869  with  full  rank 
of  major-general,  U.  S.  A.^  General  William  Starke 
Rosecrans,  of  Pennsylvania-German  stock,  graduated  at 
West  Point  in  1842.  Previous  to  the  war  he  was  a  pro- 
fessor at  the  Academy,  an  engineer,  and  a  financier.  He 
served  in  West  Virginia  as  colonel  of  Ohio  volunteers  in 
1861,  and  won  the  battle  of  Rich  Mountain.  Succeeding 
McClellan  in  the  Department  of  the  Ohio,  he  gained  the 
victory  of  Carnifex  Ferry.  As  commander  of  the  Army 
of  the  Mississippi,  he  was  victorious  at  luka  and  at  Cor- 
inth and  succeeded  Buell  as  commander  of  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland.  He  fought  the  great  battle  of  Murfrees- 
boro,  proved  himself  a  skillful  strategist  in  the  next 
months,  but  was  compelled  by  peremptory  orders  from 
the  War  Department  to  advance  before  he  was  ready, 
with  the  result  that  he  was  defeated  at  Chickamauo-a.^ 
Rosecrans  was  then  succeeded,  sent  to  the  West  and  put 

^  Heintzelraan's  grandfather,  a  native  of  Augsburg,  was  the  first  white 
settler  in  Manheim,  Pennsylvania.  Rosengarten,  p.  167. 

^  Cf.  Encyclopadic  Dictionary  of  American  Reference,  vol.  ii,  pp.  180-181. 
He  resigned  in  1867;  was  Minister  to  Mexico,  1868-69;  Democratic  Con- 
gressman from  California,  1881-85  ;  and  Registrar  of  the  United  States 
Treasury,  1885-93. 


564  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

on  waiting  orders.  Colonel  Dodge*  speaks  of  some  of  the 
Northern  generals  as  unfortunate  through  early  success. 
The  victories  in  West  Virginia,  he  says,  "  gave  both  Mc- 
Clellan  and  Rosecrans  a  reputation  which  did  them  event- 
ually an  injustice,  inasmuch  as  it  thrust  them  into 
prominent  positions  which  no  of&cer  in  the  country  was 
equal  to  without  experience  of  many  months  and  frequent 
failures.  The  nation  was  utterly  uneducated  in  war  —  few 
of  our  officers  had  commanded  even  a  regiment.  Our  only 
recent  training  had  been  in  the  Mexican  War,  a  distinctly 
fine  campaign,  but  of  limited  scope.  The  work  now  to  be 
done  required  armies  such  as  none  since  Napoleon  had 
seen  under  his  control.  Unlucky  they  who  were  early 
placed  in  high  command.  The  conditions  of  failure  were 
strong  in  both  themselves  and  the  people  for  whom  they 
fought." 

It  would  make  much  too  long  a  register  of  names  and 
achievements  to  take  account  of  the  native  soldiers  of 
German  descent  in  the  Civil  War.  The  Wister  family  of 
Pennsylvania  sent  representatives  by  the  half-score.  The 
names  Pennypacker,  Amen  (Ohio),  Hartranft,  Hambright, 
and  many  good  colonial  names  appear  in  great  abundance 
in  the  lists  of  officers  and  men.  In  rare  cases  the  families 
were  divided  between  North  and  South.  Francis  Lieber, 
the  prominent  jurist  and  professor  of  law  at  Columbia 
College,  New  York,  had  a  son  with  the  Illinois  troops, 
another  in  the  Confederate  service,  and  a  third  Avith  a 
commission  in  the  regular  army  of  the  United  States. 
Lieber  himself  was  a  leg-al  adviser  to  the  United  States 
government  in  matters  of  military  and  international  law, 
and  prepared  a  code  of  instructions  for  the  government 
of  armies  of  the  United  States  in  the  field.  He  also  main- 

1  A  Bird's-Eye  View  of  Our  Civil  War,  pp.  13  S. 


F.    \S'.  Ruckstiihl.  Si-ulr- 


JOHN  FREDERIC  HARTRANFT 


0^ 


IN   THE   CIVIL   WAR  565 

tained  a  correspondence  with  leading  Germans,  men  like 
Bluntschli,  Mohl,  and  Holtzendorff,  securing  in  Germany 
sympathy  for  the  cause  which  the  North  was  battling  to 
maintain. 

The  Germans  in  the  South  who  had  settled  there  early 
in  the  nineteenth,  or  whose  ancestors  had  arrived  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  commonly  adhered  to  the  Confederacy. 
The  more  recent  immigrants  frequently  turned  their  backs 
upon  the  South.  An  illustration  of  this  is  found  in  Texas, 
where  Schleicher,  mentioned  above,  belonging  to  an  earlier 
immigration  in  the  nineteenth  century,  became  an  ad- 
herent of  the  Secession  cause,  while  Degener,  of  a  more 
recent  immigration,  almost  lost  his  life  by  his  opposition 
to  the  current  of  Southern  sympathy.  It  was  quite  natural 
for  the  Germans  of  Virginia  to  go  with  their  state,  as  we 
saw  in  the  case  of  Kemper,  or  Armistead,  born  in  North 
Carolina,  both  of  whom  fought  valiantly  for  the  Southern 
cause.  We  find  German-Virginian  names,  such  as  Helm, 
Hoke,  Zollicoffer,  adding  glory  to  the  military  records  of 
the  Confederacy.  Of  those  born  in  Germany  few  drew 
their  swords  for  the  slave  states.  But  instances  occurred, 
such  as  that  of  Von  Zincken  and  some  others.^  Men  born  in 
Germany  who  had  immigrated  early  in  their  lives,  and  had 
become  associated  for  many  years  with  all  local  interests  of 
their  Southern  homes,  would  very  naturally  join  hands 
with  their  fellow  citizens.  F.  W.  Wagener,  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  a  representative  of 
the  best  German  element  in  that  locality,  became  the  cap- 
tain of  the  first  German  regiment,  of  four  hundred  men, 
raised  in  Charleston.  The  regiment  in  question  included 
three  German  companies  of  artillery  which  did  good  local 
service.  In  1889  the  survivors  of  the  regiment  erected  a 

'  Scheibert,  Sieben  Monate  in  den  Rebellen  Staaten.    (Stettin,  1868.)    Cf. 
Rosengarten,  p.  179. 


566  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

monument  to  their  fallen  comrades.  After  the  war  General 
Wagener  was  elected  mayor  of  Charleston  by  popular 
vote,  and  was  one  of  Charleston's  leading  citizens/ 

Viewing  the  German  participation  in  the  Civil  War  as 
a  whole,  we  see  that  it  weighed  heavily  on  the  North- 
ern side,  the  aid  given  to  the  Southern  armies  being  by 
no  means  of  the  same  importance.  For  the  Northern 
armies  the  German  element  furnished  nearly  two  hundred 
thousand  men,  natives  of  Germany.  The  number  furnished 
by  men  of  German  descent  cannot  be  estimated,  but  would 
probably  increase  the  number  threefold.  The  contribu- 
tion of  German  officers  was  of  very  great  importance. 
They  gave  their  experience  and  example,  and  taught  the 
masses  of  impetuous  and  undisciplined  volunteers  the  ne- 
cessity of  obedience  and  cooperation.  Their  soldierly 
bearing,  encouraging  words,  and  habitual  discipline  on 
the  early  battlefields  created  examples  of  imitation.  The 
German  soldier,  as  the  German  agriculturist,  contributed 
also  those  qualities  which  are  not  heralded  by  fame, 
—  patience,  steadiness,  and  persistence.  These  essential 
staying  qualities  were  exhibited  not  alone  in  battle,  but 
as  often  in  camp,  on  the  march,  or  in  the  tedious  waits 
incident  to  military  life.  To  overcome  discouragement  in 
defeat,  to  encounter  sickness  and  privation,  were  tests  the 
German  soldier  endured  as  successfully  as  the  dangers 
of  actual  combat.  In  fighting  qualities  all  nations  have 
given  proof  of  heroism ;  the  excitement  of  battle,  the  in- 
spiration of  great  leaders,  can  make  lions  out  of  sheep. 
That  the  Germans  were  superior  to  all  others  they  never 
attempted  to  claim,  but  they  can  furnish  abundant  proofs 
of  having  fought  as  bravely  and  steadily  on  the  great 
battlefields  of  the  Civil  War  as  any  othernational  element. 

1  Cf.  Rosengarten,  p.  186. 


IN  THE   CIVIL   WAR  567 

An  interesting  phenomenon  in  connection  with  this 
subject  is  the  attitude  of  Germany  during  the  Civil  War. 
The  influence  of  such  men  as  Lieber,  ah-eady  mentioned, 
and  indeed  the  fact  of  a  German  immigration  of  a  highly 
intellectual  quality  since  1848,  were  circumstances  un- 
doubtedly influential  in  establishing  in  the  mother  coun- 
try sympathy  for  the  Northern  cause.  Sentiment,  based 
on  an  abhorrence  of  slavery,  was  also  of  moment  in  decid- 
ing Germany's  position.  It  was  not  so  everywhere  in 
European  countries.  On  his  visit  to  Europe  at  the  time, 
Andrew  D.  White  found  friends  amono^  all  classes  of  Ger- 
mans :  "  Germans  everywhere  recognized  the  real  ques- 
tion at  issue  in  the  American  struggle.  Everywhere  on 
German  soil  was  a  deep  detestation  of  human  bondage. 
Frankfort-on-the-Main  became  a  most  beneficial  centre  of 
financial  influences,  and  from  first  to  last  Germany  stood 
firmly  by  us."  ^  The  same  author  says  of  England,  "  In 
that  time  of  our  direst  need,  when  among  the  leaders  in 
England  D'Israeli  was  indifferent,  Palmerston  jaunty, 
Earl  Russell  only  too  happy  to  let  out  the  Confederate 
cruisers  to  annihilate  our  commerce,  and  when  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  satisfied  that  Jefferson  Davis  had  made  a '  nation,' 
there  was  one  whose  heart  recognized  the  wickedness  of 
siding  with  the  slave  power,  and  whose  mind  recognized 
the  folly  of  making  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
enemies  for  centuries,  and  that  man,  a  German,  the  Prince 
Consort,  Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha."  ^ 

Germany  gave  not  only  her  sympathy  but  her  gold  in 
defense  of  the  Union,  and  the  purchase  of  United  States 
bonds  in  the  German  financial  centres  contributed  very 

'  Speech  of  Andrew  D.  White,  Ambassador  to  the  German  Empire,  at  a 
farewell  banquet  given  by  the  German- Americans  in  New  York  on  May  27j 
1897. 

2  White,  supra,  p.  6. 


568  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

largely  toward  sustaining  the  Union  in  the  long  struggle 
which  the  government  was  forced  to  make  against  the 
powerful  Southern  Confederacy. 

The  Spanish  War 

The  subject  of  German  volunteering  in  the  recent 
Spanish-American  War  was  brought  to  public  attention 
by  a  peculiar  incident.  It  was  in  the  wake  of  the  Spanish 
War  period,  when  several  high  ranking  of&cers  of  our 
navy  and  army  were  seeing  on  the  horizon  a  war  with 
Germany,  and  were  incidentally  committing  indiscretions 
on  convivial  occasions.  At  Honolulu  General  McArthur 
chose  to  say  that  a  war  with  Germany  was  inevitable,  and 
that  the  Pan-Germanic  sentiment  had  seized  upon  the 
German-Americans  to  such  an  extent  that  a  German  name 
in  the  regimental  lists  was  a  curiosity.  Such  a  slap-in-the- 
face  was  most  startling.  The  general  probably  did  not 
know  that  he  was  committing  an  outrage  upon  the  sens- 
ibilities of  more  than  eighteen  million  American  people, 
German  by  birth  or  descent,  who  in  all  the  wars  of  the 
United  States  had  furnished  more  than  their  proportionate 
share  of  officers  and  volunteers.  Civil  War  veterans  of 
German  blood  looked  up  in  surprise,  and  wondered  whether 
their  race  had  declined.  The  gauntlet  cast  down  was 
quickly  taken  up  by  the  ^'  Deutsch-Amerikanischer  Na- 
tional Bund,"  on  a  motion  of  the  United  German  Soci- 
eties of  Indianapolis,^  who  were  conscious  of  a  large 
German  quota  sent  by  them  to  the  Spanish-American 
War. 

>  An  organization  representing  forty-five  societies  and  a  membership  of 
about  two  thousand.  Cf.  German-American  Annals,  vol.  ii,  Americana  Ger- 
manica,  vol.  vi,  p.  173  (1904).  For  the  "  Deutsch-Amerikanischer  National 
Bund,"  cf.  German-American  Annals,  vols,  i,  ii,  etc.,  and  of  this  work, 
Volume  U,  Chapter  IV. 


IN   THE   CIVIL   WAR  569 

The  matter  was  investigated  and  the  accusation  was 
found  to  be  totall}^  false.  It  can  be  excused  only  on  the 
basis  of  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  German,  which  in  these 
days  of  opportunity  can  hardly  be  pleaded  in  palliation. 
A  good  summary  of  the  German  representation  in  the 
American  army  and  navy  during  the  Spanish  War  was 
made  by  F.  Konig,  department  commander,  Spanish- 
American  War  Veterans.^  He  made  lists  of  the  German- 
Americans  in  the  Pennsylvania  regiments  :  First  to  Sixth, 
Eighth  to  Tenth,  Twelfth  to  Sixteenth,  the  Eighteenth, 
and  Batteries  A,  B,  and  C.  It  appeared  that  at  least  fifteen 
per  cent  of  the  entire  number  enlisted  were  Germans,  and 
the  enumeration  did  not  pretend  to  be  complete.  A  list 
of  officers  and  men  was  also  given,  for  the  regiments 
named,  numbering  between  four  and  five  hundred ;  they 
are  such  as  could  not  be  mistaken  for  other  than  German 
names,  and  some  of  the  persons  they  represent  were  per- 
sonally known  to  the  compiler.  Mr.  Konig  also  states  that 
the  ships  fitted  out  in  Philadelphia,  the  U.  S.  S.  St.  Paul, 
the  U.  S.  S.  Peoria,  and  the  U.  S.  S.  Fishhawk,  were 
equipped  with  crews  of  which  fully  fifteen  per  cent  were 
German- Americans.  On  the  U.  S.  S.  Dorothea,  on  which 
the  compiler  served,  twenty  per  cent  (twelve  out  of  sixty) 
of  the  ship's  crew  were  German- Americans.  Naval  officers 
serving  in  the  United  States  Marine  Corps  during  the 
Spanish  War  were  the  German-Americans  :  Majors  Lauch- 
heimer  and  Waller,  Captains  Meyers  (b.  in  Germany)  and 
Marix,  and  Lieutenant  Schwalbe.  Naval  officers  who  were 
on  the  retired  list  for  long  and  continued  service,  and 
who  were  placed  upon  the  active  list  during  the  war  with 
Spain,  of  German  descent  unless  otherwise  specified,  were: 
Rear-Admiral  Buehler,  Commanders  Chetky,  Fickbohm 

*  German-American  Annals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  506-527. 


570  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

(German),  Hanns  (German),  Chief  Gunner  Sommers  (Ger- 
man), Captains  Kindelberger,  Schenk,  and  Hoehling,  Colo- 
nel Ritter,  Lieutenants  Ritter  and  Haggermann,  Lieuten- 
ant-Commander Eckstein,  and  Lieutenants  Kafer  and 
Kaiser.  Another  long  list  of  men  that  served  on  the  war- 
vessels  is  given,  most  of  them  residents  of  Philadelphia, 
of  German  parentage/  Finally  Mr.  Konig  gives  a  list  of 
naval  officers  of  German  descent,  including  eleven  boat- 
swains, four  ensigns,  twenty-four  lieutenants,  twelve  lieu- 
tenant-commanders, six  commanders,  four  captains,  and 
four  rear-admirals.  The  list  included  also  regular  officers 
in  the  United  States  Navy.  The  captains  were  Reiter, 
Hunker,  Reisinger,  and  Farenholt ;  the  rear-admirals  were 
Winfield  Scott  Schley,  Louis  KempfP,  Norman  von  Held- 
reich  Farghar,  and  Albert  Kautz. 

The  record  of  the  most  distinguished  of  these,  Rear-Ad- 
miral Schley,  is  still  very  familiar.  Few  if  any  of  the  naval 
officers  of  recent  times  have  rendered  such  long  and  effi- 
cient service  in  the  United  States  Navy.  During  the  Civil 
War  Schley  served  in  the  blockading  squadron  and  in  the 
engagement  leading  to  the  capture  of  Port  Hudson,  Louis- 
iana. He  suppressed  the  insurrection  among  the  Chinese 
coolies  on  the  Chin  Chi  Islands  in  1864,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  landed  one  hundred  men  at  San  Salvador 
to  protect  the  United  States  Consulate.  He  participated 
in  the  attack  on  the  Salee  River  forts  in  Korea  in  1871 ; 
after  varied  service  on  sea  and  land  he  took  command  in 
1884  of  the  Greely  Relief  Expedition.  He  rescued  Lieu- 
tenant Greely  and  six  survivors  at  Cape  Sabine,  for  which 
he  was  awarded  a  gold  watch  and  the  thanks  of  the  legisla- 
ture of  his  native  state  of  Maryland.  He  commanded  the 
cruiser  Baltimore  in  1891  and  settled  the  trouble  at  Val- 

*  German-American  Annals,  vol.  ii,  p.  524. 


IN   THE   CIVIL   WAR  571 

paraiso,  Chile,  when  several  American  sailors  were  stoned 
by  a  mob.  In  February,  1898,  he  was  promoted  commodore, 
and  placed  in  command  of  the  "  Flying  Squadron  "  on  duty 
in  Cuban  waters  in  the  war  with  Spain.  He  was  in  imme- 
diate command  at  the  destruction  of  Cervera's  fleet  off 
Santiago,  July  3,  1898,  and  thereupon  promoted  rear-ad- 
miral (August,  1898).  During  the  Schley-Sampson  contro- 
versy Rear- Admiral  Schley  comported  himself  in  a  most 
dignified  manner  throughout.  He  was  placed  before  a  court 
of  inquiry,  two  members  of  which  decided  against  him,  the 
third,  however.  Admiral  Dewey,  the  only  admiral  in  the 
American  Na.vj  since  Farragut,  whose  experience  in  naval 
affairs  gave  weight  to  his  judgment,  discountenanced 
every  article  of  the  fi.ndings  against  Schley.  In  command 
of  the  cruiser  Brooklyn  at  the  battle  of  Santiago,  Rear- 
Admiral  Schley  was  aboard  the  ship  that  received  more 
shots  than  all  the  rest  of  the  American  fleet  put  together, 
and  even  his  most  severe  detractors  admit  that  Schley, 
during  the  battle,  behaved  in  a  manner  exemplary  for  an 
American  naval  officer.  The  Brooklyn,  which  Schley 
commanded,  was  the  ship  most  instrumental  in  beaching 
the  Colon,  the  escape  of  which  would,  in  the  unequal 
fight,  have  been  equivalent  to  a  Spanish  victory. 

Albert  Kautz  graduated  from  the  Naval  Academy 
(1858)  in  time  to  serve  in  the  Civil  War.  After  a  period 
of  capture  and  imprisonment  he  served  as  Farragut's  flag 
lieutenant  on  board  the  Hartford,  at  the  capture  of  New 
Orleans,  April  1,  1862.  He  personally  hauled  down  the 
"  lone-star  "  flag  from  the  City  Hall,  which  Mayor  Monroe 
refused  to  strike,  and  hoisted  the  stars  and  stripes  on  the 
custom-house.  He  also  served  on  the  Hartford  during 
the  engagement  with  the  Vicksburg  batteries  in  June 
and  July,  1862.    He  was  made  a  rear-admiral  in  1898, 


572  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

and  placed  in  command  of  the  Pacific  Station.  In  March 
and  April,  1899,  he  was  in  command  at  Apia,  Samoa, 
during  the  trouble  with  the  native  chiefs,  and  was  com- 
mended for  his  conduct  on  that  occasion. 

Louis  Kempff,  born  near  Belleville,  Illinois,  was  likewise 
a  Civil  War  veteran.  He  left  the  Naval  Academy  in  April, 
1861,  and  served  on  the  Vandalia  in  the  blockade  off 
Charleston.  He  captured  and  took  to  New  York  the 
schooner  Henry  Mlddleton,  of  Charleston,  and  then  re- 
joined the  Vandalia  in  the  expedition  against  Port  Royal 
Ferry,  in  1862.  He  took  part  in  the  bombardment  of  Sew- 
ell's  Point,  Virginia,  and  in  various  other  engagements. 
He  was  promoted  rear-admiral  in  1899  after  good  service 
on  sea  and  land.  He  was  on  the  Asiatic  Station  in  1900, 
and  declined  to  join  the  foreign  admirals  in  the  attack  on 
the  Taku  forts,  but  after  the  U.  S.  S.  Monocacy  was 
struck  by  a  shot  from  Chinese  forts  he  joined  in  with  the 
forces  at  hand  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property  of 
the  Americans.  He  commanded  the  Pacific  Naval  Station 
in  1903. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

A  SUMMARY  VIEW  OF  THE  GERMAN  IMMIGRATIONS  OF 
THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY,  THEIR  LOCATION,  DISTRIBU- 
TION,   AND    GENERAL    CHARACTER 

Germans  on  the  frontier  —  Diffusion  of  the  German  element  over  the  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  ;  equal  distribution  —  The  German  Belt  —  The 
states  in  which  the  Germans  are  more  numerous  than  any  other  foreign 
element  —  Table  showing  distribution  of  Germans  —  List  of  cities  with 
largest  German  populations  —  Statistics  of  the  German  immigrations  of 
the  nineteenth  century  —  Causes,  in  the  United  States  and  Germany,  for 
the  increase  or  decline  of  immigration  —  The  general  character  of  the 
nineteenth  century  immigrants  from  Germany  —  Friedrich  Miinch's 
three  immigrations  —  Concluding  remarks. 

The  settlement  of  the  German  element  within  the  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  has  been  sketched  chronologically 
in  the  foregoing  chapters.  It  was  found  that,  before  the 
Revolutionary  War,  the  Germans,  estimated  at  225,000 
in  number,*  had  settled  mainly  on  the  frontier  line,  ex- 
tending from  the  Mohawk  in  New  York  to  the  colony 
farthest  south,  Georgia.  They  had  settled  two  vast  physi- 
ographic areas,  the  Piedmont  Plateau,  lying  at  the  base 
and  east  of  the  Appalachian  ranges  from  New  York  to 
Georgia,  and  the  Great  Valley,  lying  between  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  Alleghany  mountains,  beginning  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, extending  across  Maryland  and  southwest  through 
Virginia.  "  With  their  Scotch-Irish  neighbors,  they  formed 
the  outer  edge  of  the  tide  of  pioneers  that  was  ready  to 
flow  through  the  passes  of  the  mountains  into  the  interior 

*  See  Chapter  x,  and  the  accompanying  map. 


574  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

of  the  continent."  ^  As  shown  in  preceding  chapters,  the 
German  immigrants  were  among  the  first  to  enter  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee  from  Virginia  and  the  Carohnas;^ 
tliey  were  the  first  settlers  of  the  Ohio  Valley.^ 

In  the  nineteenth  century  came  another  and  greater 
"  Volkerwanderung,"  reaching  a  total,  for  the  hundred 
years,  of  5,009,280  souls.  New  areas  were  settled  by  these 
hosts  of  peaceful  invaders,  who,  no  longer  checked  by  a 
forbidding  mountain  range  running  from  northeast  to 
southwest,  pushed  on  irresistibly  over  the  limitless  western 
plains,  and,  reinforced  by  new  accessions  from  the  coast, 
extended  the  frontier  line  ever  farther  to  the  westward 
until  it  reached  the  Pacific  Ocean.*  When  the  frontier 
ceased  to  be,  an  event  announced  in  the  Census  Report 
of  1890,  the  Germans  were  diffused  over  the  whole  sur- 
face of  the  United  States. 

The  last  Census  Report  (1900)  shows  that  the  German 
population  is  not  alone  widespread,  but  is  more  equally 
distributed  over  the  territory  of  the  United  States  than 
any  other  foreign  element.  This  can  be  seen  by  a  com- 
parison of  the  maps  published  by  the  Census  Bureau, 
showing  the  "density  of  natives"  of  Germany,  Ireland, 
Great  Britain,  Scandinavia,  etc.^  The  other  nationalities 
will  be  found  massed  in  certain  localities.  For  example, 
quoting  from  the  Census  Reports :  ^  "  The  North  Atlantic 
division  contains  more  than  three  fourths  of  all  French- 
Canadians.  The  same  division  also  contains  73  per  cent 
of  all  the  natives  of  Hungary,  72.7  per  cent  of  all  the 
natives  of  Italy,  and  70.7  per  cent  of  all  the  natives  of 

1  F.  J.  Turner,  German  Immigration  in  the  Colonial  Period,  Chicago  Re- 
cord-Herald, August  28,  1901. 

2  Cf.  Chapter  xii.  3  Cf.  Chapter  xni.  «  Cf.  Chapter  XV. 
5  Statiitical  Atlas  of  the  United  States,  1900,  plates  nos.  65-69. 

*  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States,  1900,  vol.  i,  p.  clxxv. 


A   SUMMARY  VIEW  575 

Russian  Poland.  This  same  division  contains  also  by  far 
the  largest  proportion  of  all  the  natives  of  Austria,  Ire- 
land, and  Russia,  and  more  than  half  of  all  the  natives  of 
England,  Scotland,  and  Wales.  The  North  Central  divi- 
sion contains  very  nearly  85  per  cent  of  all  the  natives  of 
Norway,  a  little  more  than  75  per  cent  of  all  the  natives 
of  Bohemia  and  Holland,  very  nearly  65  per  cent  of  all 
the  natives  of  Denmark  and  Sweden."  The  North  Central 
division  contains  54.9  per  cent  of  all  the  natives  of  Ger- 
many, which  is  the  ratio  to  which  this  division  is  entitled, 
considering  its  larger  area,  general  fertility,  and  great 
cities.  The  North  Atlantic  division  contains  33.2  per  cent 
of  all  the  native  Germans,  and  with  the  North  Central 
division  forms  the  German  belt  which  contains  almost 
nine  tenths  of  all  native  Germans. 

In  many  other  sections  of  the  country,  the  Germans 
outnumbered  the  other  nationalities.  The  natives  of  Ger- 
many constitute  a  little  more  than  one  fourth  of  the  entire 
foreign  element  in  the  United  States,  viz.,  25.8  per  cent. 
In  the  North  Atlantic  division,  they  number  18.6  per  cent 
of  the  foreign  element;  in  the  North  Central  division,  35.1 
per  cent;  in  the  South  Atlantic  division,  33.7  per  cent; 
in  the  South  Central  division,  30.7  per  cent,  and  in  the 
Western  division,  16  per  cent  of  the  entire  foreign  popu- 
lation. The  native  Germans  are  therefore  slightly  above 
their  average  of  25.8  per  cent  in  the  North  Central  and 
South  Atlantic  divisions,  also  in  the  South  Central  divi- 
sion, and  below  their  average  in  the  North  Atlantic  and 
Western  divisions.  They  are  outnumbered  in  the  North 
Atlantic  division  by  the  Irish,  but  in  the  Western  division, 
where  their  percentage  is  below  their  average  (25.8),  they 
nevertheless  are  more  numerous  than  any  other  foreign 
element,  the  English  being  next  with  12.1  per  cent. 


576  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

The  natives  of  Russia  are  found  mostly  in  cities,  very 
nearly  three  fourths  of  them  living  in  the  large  cities  in 
1900.  So  it  is  with  the  natives  of  Poland  and  Italy.  The 
Irish  inhabit  the  large  cities  also  to  the  extent  of  62  per 
cent  of  their  number,  very  little  less  than  the  Italians,  with 
62.4  per  cent.  The  Scandinavians,  who  are  massed  in  the 
^Northwest,  principally  Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas,  are 
not  dwellers  in  cities,  while  the  natives  of  Germany  and 
England  are  about  equally  distributed  in  city  and  country. 

The  map  following  this  page  designates  the  states  (with 
a  cross-mark)  in  wliich  the  natives  of  Germany  are  more 
numerous  than  any  other  foreign  element.  It  will  be  seen 
that  all  the  states  in  the  Union  harbor  a  larger  native 
German  population  than  of  any  other  foreign  country, 
with  the  following  exceptions  :  Maine  and  Michigan,  which 
include  a  larger  Canadian-English  ;  Vermont  and  New 
Hampshire,  which  contain  a  larger  Canadian-French  ele- 
ment;  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and 
Delaware,  which  hold  a  larger  Irish  population;  Florida, 
a  larger  Cuban ;  Louisiana,  a  larger  Italian  ;  Texas,  New 
Mexico,  and  Arizona,  a  larger  Mexican  element.  The 
Mormon  states,  Utah,  Idaho,  and  Wyoming,  contain  a 
larger  English,  Montana  and  Washington  a  larger  Cana- 
dian-English, element;  Nevada  includes  more  Irish  and 
the  Dakotas  more  Norwegians.  All  the  remaining  states 
—  and  it  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  they  represent  the 
great  progressive  area  of  the  United  States,  together  with 
the  cream  of  the  Pacific  coast,  California  and  Oregon  — 
all  of  them  contain  a  larger  German  than  any  other  for- 
eign population.  Though  the  German  immigration  was 
not  large  between  1890  and  1900,  the  Germans  did  not 
lose  ground  in  comparison  with  other  national  or  racial 
elements.  Louisiana,  which  was  more  largely  inhabited  by 


A  SUMMAEY  VIEW  577 

native  Germans  in  1890,  now  contains  more  Italians,  but 
to  compensate  for  that,  California  has  now  a  larger  Ger- 
man than  Chinese  population,  and  Pennsylvania  and  Vir- 
ginia are  now  more  largely  inhabited  by  native  Germans 
than  by  native  Irishmen. 

The  following  table,  taken  from  the  Census  Report  of 
1900,^  will  show  exactly  where  the  Germans  are  located 
and  compare  them  with  the  two  next  largest  elements,  the 
Irish  and  the  English  :  — 

German  Population  distributed  over  the  United  States 

Germans  Irish  English 

The  United  States :  2,666,990  1,618,567  842,078 

North  Atlantic  Division—       883,908  1,113,876  435,031 

Maine  1,356  10,159  4,793 

New  Hampshire  2,006  13,547  5,100 

Vermont  882  7,453  2,447 

Massachusetts  31,395  249,916  82,346 

Rhode  Island  4,300  35,501  22,832 

Connecticut  31,892  70,994  21,569 

New  York  480,026  425,553  135,685 

New  Jersey  119,598  94,844  45,428 

Pennsylvania  212,453  205,909  114,831 

South  Atlantic  Division—  72,705  36,606  20,274 

Delaware  2,332  5,044  1,506 

Maryland  44,990  13,874  5,299 

District  of  Columbia  5,857  6,220  2,299 

Virginia  4,504  3,534  3,425 

West  Virginia  6,537  3,342  2,622 

North  Carolina  1,191  371  904 

South  Carolina  2,075  1,131  474 

Georgia  3,407  2,293  1,514 

Florida  1,812  797  2,231 

^  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States,  1900,  vol.  i  (Population),  part  i, 
pp.  clxxiii-clxxiv,  table  Ixxxii. 


578  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 


North  Central  Division 

—    1,461,603 

349,805 

260,369 

Ohio 

204,160 

55,018 

44,745 

Indiana 

73,546 

16,306 

10,874 

Illinois 

.      332,169       ', 
^      125,074 

114,563 

64,390 

Michigan 

29,182 

43,839 

Wisconsin 

242,777 

23,544 

17,995 

Minnesota 

117,007 

22,428 

12,022 

Iowa 

123,162 

28,321 

21,027 

Missouri 

109,282 

31,832 

15,666 

North  Dakota 

11,546 

2,670 

2,909 

South  Dakota 

17,873 

3,298 

3,862 

Nebraska 

65,506 

11,127 

9,757 

Kansas 

39,501 

11,516 

13,283 

South  Central  Division - 

-        109,743 

31,640 

22,183 

Kentucky 

27,555 

9,874 

3,256 

Tennessee 

4,569 

3,372 

2,207 

Alabama 

3,634 

1,792 

2,347 

Mississippi 

1,926 

1,264 

798 

Louisiana 

11,839 

6,436 

2,068 

Texas 

48,295 

6,173 

8,213 

Indian  Territory 

842 

397 

779 

Oklahoma 

5,112 

987 

1,121 

Arkansas 

5,971 

1,345 

1,394 

Western  Division  — 

135,459 

83,532 

102,656 

Montana 

7,162 

9,436 

8,077 

Wyoming 

2,146 

1,591 

2,596 

Colorado 

14,606 

10,132 

13,575 

New  Mexico 

1,360 

692 

968 

Arizona 

1,245 

1,159 

1,561 

Utah 

2,360 

1,516 

18,879 

Nevada 

1,179 

1,425 

1,167 

Idaho 

2,974 

1,633 

3,943 

Washington 

16,686 

7,262 

10,481 

Oregon 

13,292 

4,210 

5,663 

California 

72,449 

44,476 

35,746 

Some  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  United  States  con- 
tain very  large   German  populations.    Native   Germans 


UTRASV 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  aUHOIS 


A   SUMMARY   VIEW  579 

constitute  very  nearly  two  thirds  of  all  the  foreign-born  in 
Cincinnati,  substantially  three  fifths  in  Milwaukee,  very 
nearly  three  fifths  in  Louisville,  more  than  one  half  in 
St.  Louis,  and  very  nearly  one  half  in  Baltimore.  These  sta- 
tistics become  more  interesting  after  comparisonwith  others. 
The  Irish  number  one  third  the  total  foreign  population  of 
Boston,  Cambridge,  Jersey  City,  New  Haven,  Philadelphia, 
and  Providence;  three  tenths  in  Lowell,  Washington, 
and  Worcester ;  French-Canadians  inhabit  Fall  River  to 
the  extent  of  40.3  per  cent  of  the  total  foreign  population, 
35.8  per  cent  in  Lowell,  14  per  cent  in  Worcester.  The 
Swedes  number  very  nearly  one  third  of  the  foreign-born 
in  Minneapolis,  one  fifth  in  St.  Paul  and  Worcester. 
Italians  are  most  numerous  in  New  Orleans  (19.3  per  cent) 
and  New  Haven  (17.1  per  cent).  Russians  are  most  num- 
erous in  Baltimore,  German  Poles  in  Milwaukee,  Nor- 
wegians in  Minneapolis. 

A  list  of  cities  of  the  United  States  is  subjoined,  in 
which  the  population  born  in  Germany  exceeds  5000. 
The  total  population  of  the  city  is  placed  in  the  first  col- 
umn, the  foreign-born  Germans  in  the  second,  and  the 
number  of  persons  of  German  parentage  in  the  third. 
Under  the  last-named  are  included  (1)  all  persons  born  in 
Germany,  (2)  all  persons  born  in  the  United  States  with 
both  parents  born  in  Germany,  (3)  with  one  parent  born 
in  Germany  and  the  other  in  some  other  foreign  country, 
and  (4)  all  persons  born  in  the  United  States  with  one 
parent  born  in  Germany  and  the  other  born  in  the  United 
States/  The  list  is  as  given  on  the  following  page. 

^  Cf.  The  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i  (Population),  part  i, 
pp.  878-881  (table  60)  ;  pp.  882-885  (table  61);  pp.  890-893  (table  63). 


580 


THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 


City 

Total  Population 

Born 
in  Germany 

Total  of  Ger- 
man Parentage 

New  York 

3,437,202 

322,343 

761,795 

Chicago 

1,698,575 

170,738 

416,729 

Philadelphia 

1,293,697 

71,319 

190,144 

St.  Louis 

575,238 

58,781 

199,182 

Milwaukee 

285,315 

53,854 

146,846 

Cleveland 

•  381,768 

40,648 

105,321 

Cincinnati 

325,902 

38,219 

136.087 

Buffalo 

352,387 

36,720 

113,102 

San  Francisco 

342,782 

35,194 

58,935 

Baltimore 

508,957 

33,208 

107,506 

Detroit 

285,704 

S3  ,027 

84,165 

Newark 

246,070 

25,139 

67,105 

Pittsburg 

321,616 

21,222 

64,204 

Jersey  City 

206,433 

17,375 

44,247 

Rochester 

162,608 

15,685 

47,573 

St.  Paul 

163,065 

12,935 

35,945 

Louisville 

204.731 

12,383 

47,514 

Toledo 

131,822 

12,373 

37,389 

Allegheny 

129,896 

12,022 

37,270 

Hoboken 

59,364 

10,843 

23,463 

Boston 

560,892 

10,523 

25,119 

New  Orleans 

287,104 

8,733 

36,293 

Indianapolis 

169,164 

8,632 

29,163 

Syracuse 

108,374 

7,865 

21,753 

Minneapolis 

202,718 

7,335 

21,758 

Dayton 

85,333 

6,820 

22,861 

Paterson 

105,171 

6,584 

13,139 

Columbus,  Ohio 

125,560 

6,296 

21,811 

Davenport,  Iowa 

35,254 

6,111 

15,839 

Albany 

94,151 

5,903 

18,553 

Washington 

278,718 

5,857 

17,782 

Omaha,  Nebraska 

102,555 

5,522 

13,826 

Erie 

52,733 

5,226 

16.841 

Denver 

133,859 

5,114 

14,780 

Two  significant  facts  are  to  be  gathered  from  the  sta- 
tistics presented  on  the  foregoing  pages, —  first,  that  of 
the  equal  distribution  of  the  German  immigration  in  com- 


.4%^*«^ 


^ 


■ct 


A   SUMMAEY   VIEW  581 

parison  with  other  foreign  elements,  and  secondly,  the 
existence  of  a  German  belt,  where  the  German  element  is 
most  numerous  and  prosperous.  Their  equal  distribution 
through  town  and  country,  and  proportionately  through 
all  parts  of  the  United  States,  recommends  the  German 
immigrants  as  a  class  desirable  above  others.  In  the  eight- 
eenth century  they  chose  the  lands  best  adapted  for 
farming  purposes  and  clung  to  them,  and  just  so  in  the 
nineteenth  they  selected  the  area  which  at  the  j^resent  day 
corresponds  to  the  most  productive  and  jjrogressive  in  the 
United  States.  The  German  belt  lies  between  the  north- 
ern boundaries  of  Massachusetts  and  of  Maryland,  spreads 
westward  north  of  the  Ohio  River  to  the  Great  Lakes 
and  onward  into  the  neighboring  two  tiers  of  trans-Mis- 
sissippi states.  In  this  great  general  zone  the  lands  of 
densest  settlement  are  along  the  coast,  along  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  and  in  Eastern  Pennsylvania ;  also  along  the 
shores  of  Lake  Ontario,  Lakes  Erie  and  Michisran,  alono- 
the  Ohio  River,  and  down  the  Mississippi  from  St.  Paul 
to  St.  Louis.*  The  states  which  contain  the  most  native 
Germans  are,  in  order.  New  York,  Illinois,  Wisconsin, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio. 

The  German  immigration  in  the  nineteenth  century 
reaches  a  total  considerably  larger  than  that  of  any  other 
foreign  element.  The  following  table  gives  their  numbers 
in  comparison  with  others :  — 

Germany  >^  5,009,280 

Ireland  3,871,253 
Great  Britain,  including 

England,  Scotland,  and  Wales  3,024,222 

Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  1,439,060 

1  Cf.  F.  J.  Turner,  The  German  Immigration  to  the  United  States,  ii,  Chicago 
Record-Herald,  September  4,  1901. 


682  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

Canada  and  Newfoundland  1,049,939 

Italy  -             1,040,457 

Austria  Hungary  1,027,195 

Russia  and  Poland  926,902 

All  other  countries  1,726,913 

Total  19,115,221 

The  enumeration  of  foreign  immigrations  was  not  begun 
before  1820.  In  the  early  period  only  the  immigration 
going  through  the  seaports  was  taken  into  account ;  the 
figures  in  the  early  period  are  therefore  below  the  actual 
status  ;  still  they  constitute  the  only  information  available. 
The  German  immigration  by  decades,  taken  from  the 
Census  Reports,  is  as  follows  ;  — 

1821-30  6,761 

1831-40  152,454 

1841-50  434,626 

1851-60  951,667 

1861-70  787,468 

1871-80  •  718,182 

1881-90  1,452,970 

1891-1900  505,152 

Total  6,009,280 

Up  to  1850  the  Irish  immigration  exceeded  the  Ger- 
man;  from  1841  to  1850  the  German  immigration  was 
about  24.2  per  cent,  the  Irish  42.3  per  cent  of  the  total 
immio-ration.  But  in  the  decade  1851  to  1860  the  German 
immigration  surpassed  the  Irish  and  all  others,  and  con- 
tinued to  do  so  until  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  when,  although  still  exceeding  the  Irish  and  Eng- 
lish, it  fell  far  below  the  Slavic  and  Italian  immigrations. 
The  causes  for  the  rise  and  fall  in  the  wave  of  German 
immigration  are  very  interesting,  the  increase  commonly 
corresponding  to  a  period  of  economic  decline  in  certain 


Of  ^HE 
UMWERSITY  Of  HUNOIS 


A   SUMMARY  VIEW  683 

parts  of  Germany  and  a  contemporaneous  era  of  prosperity 
or  opportuuitv  in  the  United  States.  A  decrease  in  the 
German  immigration  occurred  during  all  the  periods  of 
depression  in  the  United  States,  especially  if  at  the  same 
time  prosperity  reigned  in  the  mother  country. 

The  impression  is  general  that  the  immigration  between 
1790  and  1820  was  very  slight.  There  are  no  accurate 
statistics  to  controvert  this  impression.  No  good  reason, 
however,  has  been  urged  why  immigration  should  have 
practically  ceased,  and  it  is  quite  probable  that  between 
1810  and  1820  there  was  considerable  immioTation  to  the 
United  States,  at  least  representing  the  upward  slope 
toward  the  immigration  between  1820  and  1830.  There 
must  have  been  quite  a  little  immigration  immediately  be- 
fore 1820,  because  it  attracted  attention  enough  to  cause 
an  official  count  to  be  instituted  at  the  seaports.  In  1820, 
for  instance,  there  were  nine  hundred  and  sixty-eight  Ger- 
mans that  arrived  at  American  ports,  and  so  large  a  num- 
ber must  have  been  preceded  by  at  least  hundreds,  arriv- 
ing annually  in  years  just  previous.  After  the  close  of  the 
war  with  England  it  was  less  difficult  to  come  to  America, 
and  when  the  reactionary  governments  assumed  firm  con- 
trol in  Europe  there  was  considerable  dissatisfaction  in 
the  German  countries.  Germans  suffered  much  from  the 
Napoleonic  wars,  especially  Wiirtemberg,  the  country  that 
had,  in  the  previous  century,  supplied  so  many  immigrants 
to  the  United  States.  The  years  1817-18,  the  period 
of  tyrannical  persecution  of  the  student  societies,  the 
"  Burschenschaften,"  undoubtedly  brought  many  refugees 
to  the  land  of  political  liberty.  The  great  increase,  how- 
ever, in  German  immigration  did  not  come  until  the  dec- 
ade of  1831-40.  In  1832,  starting  upward  with  over 
ten  thousand,  it  reached  more  than  twenty-nine  thousand 


584  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

in  1840,  and  a  total  of  over  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 
thousand  for  the  decade.  ^ 

There  were  various  causes,  such  as  ovor-population, 
over-production,  over-crowding  in  the  farming  districts, 
and  the  ruin  of  the  small  hand  industries  in  comjDctition 
with  the  new  factory  system.  Thousands  of  artisans  who 
were  brought  up  in  the  old  master-system,  in  which  each 
man  made  the  whole  article,  were  now  left  destitute  be- 
cause of  the  cheaper  manufacture  in  factories.^  Contem- 
porary with  this  condition  a  period  of  prosperity  and  ex- 
pansion existed  in  the  United  States. 

It  was  an  era  of  land  speculation,  town-building,  and  westward 
movement.  A  flood  of  settlers  poured  by  way  of  the  Erie  Canal 
and  steamboats  into  tbe  land  between  the  Ohio  and  the  Great 
Lakes ;  the  cotton  culture  spread  population  into  the  Gulf 
States,  and  Missouri  received  an  important  influx  of  settlers. 
These  conditions  were  made  known  in  Germany.  Cheap  lands, 
light  taxes,  the  need  of  laborers,  and  the  opportunity  to  gain  a 
competence  in  a  short  time  by  toil,  —  these  were  conditions  that 
attracted  the  Germans.^ 

At  home  impetuous  German  students  and  professors 
had  vainly  striven  for  reform  against  the  misgovernment, 
taxation,  and  extravagance  of  the  petty  German  rulers. 

The  triumph  of  Jacksoniau  Democracy  here  was  contempo- 
raneous with  these  German  attempts  to  secure  popular  freedom, 
and  it  seemed  to  promise  them  the  liberty  they  sought.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  influx  of  the  so-called  "  Latin  farmers  " 
into  Ohio,  Lidiana,  and  Missouri.  German  names  dotted  the 
map  of  the  newly-settled  areas  of  these  regions.  Letters  and 
newspapers  of  these  German  pioneers  were  printed  and  circu- 
lated in  the  fatherland,  particularly  in  the  region  of  the  Rhine, 

*  For  a  literary  picture  of  such  conditions,  of.  the  German  novel  Meister 
Timpe,  by  Max  Kretzer. 
^  Turner,  Chicago  Record-Herald,  September  4, 1901. 


A  SUMMARY  VIEW  585 

whence  the  old  migrations  to  Pennsylvania  had  occurred,  among 
the  alert,  enterprising  people  of  these  provinces.  These  reports 
were  idealistic  in  the  coloring  they  gave  American  life,  and  they 
left  a  deep  impression,  that  America  offered  refuge  from  eco- 
nomic, social,  and  political  evils  of  these  lands.  The  influence 
of  the  cultivated  German  immigrants  of  the  period  was  out  of 
proportion  to  their  number.^ 

The  two  decades,  1841-60,  present  an  increase  in 
the  German  immisrration.  The  liiofh  wave  came  between 
1846-54.  Beginning"  with  57,500  German  immigrants  in 
one  year  the  figures  reached  215,009  for  the  year  1854. 
In  the  three  years  1852-54  over  five  hundred  thousand 
arrived,  and  during  the  nine  years  almost  nine  hundred 
thousand.  Then  the  immigration  decreased  in  volume 
until  after  the  Civil  War.  The  crest  of  the  wave,  from 
1850-54,  was  contemporaneous  with  the  revolutionary 
troubles  in  Germany  of  1848,  and  following  years,  when 
many  a  son  of  liberty,  like  Hecker,  Sigel,  Blenker,  and  most 
famous  of  all,  Carl  Schurz,  arrived  on  our  shores.  Economic 
conditions  also  contributed  an  important  share,  the  failure 
of  crops,  the  rise  in  the  price  of  food-stuffs,  the  destruc- 
tion of  local  industries  through  competition  with  machine 
products.  These  brought  the  rank  and  file.  In  1850-53 
there  was  a  failure  of  the  vintage  in  Wiirtemberg,  —  and 
earlier,  in  1846-47,  there  had  been  failure  of  the  potato 
crop  in  those  southwestern  portions  of  Germany  which  had 
always  contributed  largely  to  the  American  immigration. 
The  local  governments  frequently  found  it  necessary  to 
encourage  the  exodus  of  their  people.  At  the  same  period 
the  American  railroads  were  opening  up  the  vast  Western 
territories,  and  new  states,  such  as  Wisconsin,  were  making 
extraordinary  efforts  to  attract  German  immigrants.  The 

1  Turner,  Chicago  Record-Herald,  September  4,  1901. 


586  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

improvements  in  ocean  travel  made  the  journey  shorter 
and  cheaper,  and  better  guarantees  were  now  furnished 
for  safe  transportation. 

Another  high  wave  of  German  immigration  came  after 
the  Civil  War.  From  1866,  when  the  hundred  thousand 
mark  was  passed  again,  the  immigration  continued  to  pour 
in  until  1873,  at  the  rate  of  about  one  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  annually.  In  Germany  this  period  corresponds 
to  the  great  wars  of  Prussia,  and  to  the  convulsions  into 
which  the  German  states  were  thrown  before  their  being 
welded  into  one  nation  through  the  Franco-Prussian  War 
of  1870.  Military  duty  and  hard  pressure  upon  the  popu- 
lation had  much  to  do  with  increasing  the  immigration. 
The  allurements  on  the  other  side  were  quite  as  strong  an 
influence  as  hardships  at  home.  A  homestead  being  lib- 
erally offered  to  every  worthy  immigrant,  the  Germans,  as 
in  the  century  before,  felt  "  keenly  alive  to  the  desirability 
of  possessing  land."  The  financial  depression  following 
the  panic  of  1873  showed  its  effect  upon  the  German  im- 
migration, for  in  the  following  six  years  the  immigration 
only  once  reached  fifty  thousand  in  one  year,  and  that 
was  in  1874. 

A  bound  upward  began  in  1880,  in  which  year  the 
immigration  was  three  times  as  large  as  that  of  1879;  in 
1881  it  nearly  doubled  again,  almost  reaching  the  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  mark.  In  1882  came  the 
banner  year  with  250,630,  a  record  which  has  never  been 
surpassed.  Large  immigrations  continued  until  1885. 
Then  the  numbers  went  up  and  down,  with  another  final  rise 
in  1891-92,  the  immigration  of  the  two  years  numbering 
214,000.  After  that  the  number  steadily  declined,  reach- 
ing the  lowest  point  in  1898,  namely,  17,111,  and  rising 
very  little  above  that  since  (28,304  in  1902).  The  record 


A   SmiMARY   VIEW  587 

of  the  immigration,  year  by  year,  is  comparable  to  a  pulse 
indicating  the  material  prosperity  of  the  two  countries. 
Germany's  great  rise  as  an  industrial  nation,  her  develop- 
ment of  colonies  in  Africa  and  elsewhere  for  her  surplus 
j3opulation,  her  exemplary  laws  insuring  the  laboring  class 
against  accident,  disability,  etc.,  have  made  her  population 
far  less  eager  to  emigrate  to  foreign  parts.  The  disap- 
pearance of  the  frontier  line  and  all  areas  of  cheap  land 
has  rendered  America  far  less  attractive.  In  the  labor 
market  came  the  competition  of  the  Slavic  and  South 
Italian  races,  which  the  German,  with  a  higher  standard 
of  living,  finds  difficult  though  by  no  means  impossible  to 
maintain.  Nevertheless  the  field  does  not  attract  him. 

In  reofard  to  the  character  of  the  German  immio^ration 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  much  applies  to  them  that  has 
already  been  said  in  regard  to  the  immigration  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Yet  there  were  difPerences  also.  There 
was  on  the  whole  a  much  larger  percentage  of  men  of  cul- 
ture in  some  of  the  immig^rations  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury.  There  were  many  refugees,  not  from  religious  per- 
secution, as  in  the  eighteenth  century,  but  from  political 
oppression  and  espionage.  These  were  men  who,  if  they 
had  been  tolerated,  w^ould  have  become  influential  in  the 
public  life  of  their  native  land.  Coming  to  this  country 
they  spent  their  efforts  in  the  development  of  political  and 
social  conditions  in  the  United  States,  beginning  with  the 
improvement  of  their  own  people  in  their  adopted  country. 
Such  were  the  refugees  of  the  period  from  about  1817  to 
1835,  and  of  1818  and  the  years  immediately  succeeding. 

A  representative  of  the  earlier  class  of  political  refu- 
gees, Friedrich  Miinch,  who  has  been  described  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter  as  a  successful  "Latin  farmer,"  typical  of 
the  class  of  permanent  settlers,  —  Friedrich  Miinch,  in  a 


588  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT 

reminiscent  mood,  describes  the  German  immigrations  of 
the  nineteenth  century  as  follows :  ^ 

There  were  three  periods.  Immigration  No.  1,  attracted  by 
such  books  as  Duden's,  turned  to  Missouri  and  other  Western 
states,  and  devoted  themselves  to  agriculture.  Laborers  and 
peasants,  without  any  high  standard  of  life  and  accustomed  to 
hard  work,  found  the  situation  to  their  satisfaction  and  gradually 
but  steadily  became  prosperous.  The  better  educated,  sometimes 
even  in  spite  of  strenuous  efforts,  frequently  died  in  the  struggle. 
The  adventurers  of  this  group  also  met  disappointment,  and, 
although  frequently  useful  as  border  fighters  on  the  advance 
guard  of  civilization,  did  not  achieve  permanent  success.  There 
was  also  a  group  of  refugees  of  1817-18,  and  it  was  their  office 
to  elevate  the  tone  of  the  other  German  immigrants.  The  Ger- 
mans were  commonly  all  Jeffersonian  Democrats  in  their  politics, 
as  distinct  from  the  aristocratic  Whigs,  and  they  were  opposed 
to  slavery.  After  the  Mexican  War  and  the  discovery  of  gold  in 
California,  conditions  in  the  West  grew  better  and  the  German 
farmers  became  more  prosperous. 

The  immigration  No.  2  was  heartily  welcomed  by  the  first 
immigration,  but  the  former  were  not  well  satisfied  with  their 
countrymen  in  America.  They  did  not  like  the  backwoods  con- 
dition of  the  earlier  immigration,  and  only  a  few  of  them,  as 
did  Hecker,  became  farmers.  Most  of  them  went  into  the  cities 
as  merchants,  manufacturers,  or  brain-workers  of  various  kinds. 
A  very  frequent  occupation  for  them  was  journalism,  and  in 
their  newspapers  they  declared  that  we  older  men  had  not  re- 
mained German  enough,  nor  had  we  asserted  our  influence  suf- 
ficiently. A  war  of  words  frequently  occurred  between  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  two  immigrations,  the  older  receiving  the 
nickname,  "die  Grauen,"  and  the  younger  "die  Griinen."  The 
Grays  had  passed  through  an  experience  of  twenty  years  of  toil 
under  primitive  American  frontier  conditions,  and  had  lost 
much  of  their  youthful  ardor  for  impracticable  ideas.  When 

1  Cf.  Der  deutsche  Pionier,  vol.  i,  pp.  243-250.  The  above  is  an  abstract, 
not  a  literal  quotation. 


A  SUMMARY   VIEW  589 

the  younger  element,  the  Greens,  arrived,  they  set  themselves 
up  as  instructors  or  dictators,  but  the  Grays  were  not  disposed 
to  listen  to  them.  A  better  understanding  came  about  when  the 
new  Republican  party  arose  and  the  Lincoln  campaign  began. 
Then  the  Germans  united  against  slavery  as  one  man,  and  the 
old  wounds  which  the  Grays  and  the  Greens  had  inflicted  in 
their  newspaper  campaigns  were  entirely  forgotten.  The  Greens 
were  useful  in  quickening  the  minds  of  the  older  generation ; 
the  latter,  forming  a  conservative  element,  restrained  the  new 
arrivals  in  their  fantastic  dreams.  Without  the  first  immigra- 
tion, the  second  would  have  had  a  much  more  difficult  position. 
It  would  not  have  gained  influence  and  would  have  made  many 
a  false  step.  Without  the  support  of  the  first  immigration,  the 
second  might  have  been  quickly  absorbed  without  leaving  a  trace 
behind.  The  second  played  an  important  part  in  American 
history. 

The  third  immigration  came  after  the  period  of  1866.  They 
were  mostly  of  the  working  class,  with  far  better  schooling  than 
the  same  class  of  thirty  years  before.  In  comparison  with  the 
earlier  immigrations  they  were  overbearing,  dissatisfied  with 
conditions  as  they  found  them  in  the  new  country,  and  too  well 
impressed  with  those  they  left  at  home.  As  a  rule  they  would 
not  do  the  work  of  an  inferior  class,  and  as  a  result  frequently 
found  all  desirable  positions  occupied. 

But  in  the  end  Mimcli  subdues  his  resentment  concern- 
ing even  the  last  immigration. 

Even  these  [he  says]  as  a  rule  prosper  well.  Conditions  are 
so  much  better  here  than  they  were  thirty  or  forty  years  ago, 
and  though  the  immigrants  come  in  hundreds  of  thousands,  they 
will  find  a  place  after  paying  for  their  necessary  experience.  I 
have  no  fear  for  the  green  or  even  the  greenest  [die  Griinen 
und  Allergriinsten],  is  his  conclusion. 

This  characterization  of  three  types  of  German  immi- 
gration in  the  nineteenth  century,  undertaken  by  the  vet- 
eran "  Latin  farmer  "  Friedrich  Miinch,  is  by  no  means 


590  THE   GERMAN  ELEMENT 

a  final  word  on  the  subject,  yet  it  represents  a  sincere  at- 
tempt at  a  judicial  view.  As  shown  in  another  chapter, 
Mlinch,  when  a  younger  man,  was  a  leader  in  the  camp  of 
the  first  immigration  (die  Grauen).  The  important  fact 
is  that,  when  the  period  of  slavery  agitation  arose,  all 
petty  differences  were  laid  aside  for  the  patriotic  attempt 
to  combine  all  the  German  forces  against  slavery  and  the 
disruption  of  the  Union.  It  would  be  an  invidious  task  to 
attempt  narrow  distinctions  between  the  various  German 
immigrations  of  the  nineteenth  century.*  In  the  most 
general  way  it  may  be  said  that  the  first  immigration 
resembled  more  closely  the  sturdy  German  folk  of  the 
eighteenth  century ;  the  second  contained  a  larger  num- 
ber of  refugees,  whose  influence  was  strongly  felt  in 
the  political  and  cultural  development  of  the  United 
States ;  while  the  third  immigration,  coming  after  1866 
and  also  after  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  in  culture  and 
education  more  closely  akin  to  the  second  immigration, 
contained  a  larger  number  of  men  seeking,  with  advant- 
age to  themselves,  the  advancement  of  the  commerce  and 
manufactures  of  the  American  nation  ;  a  large  number 
also  being  destined  to  become  prominent  in  the  technical 
and  professional  branches.  But  the  exceptions  to  these 
general  rules  are  too  numerous  to  encourage  dogmatic 
statements.  The  question  of  such  distinctions  is  not  one 
of  vital  importance  in  a  discussion  of  the  influences  of  the 

^  Gustav  Korner's  book,  Das  deutsche  Element  in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten  von 
Nordamerika,  1818-1848,  gives  an  excellent  account  of  the  Germans  who 
came  to  the  United  States  before  the  March  Revolution  of  1848,  with  an 
underlying  purpose  of  showing  that  the  earlier  immigration  achieved  more 
than  the  later.  A  champion  of  the  "  forty-eighters  "  has  never  appeared, 
though  materials  are  abundant  for  his  arguments,  and  for  a  work  of  the  di- 
mensions of  Korner's.  Particularly  in  politics,  journalism,  and  music  the 
"  forty-eighters  "  accomplished  more  than  the  earlier  immigrations,  as  can 
be  observed  in  the  second  volume  of  this  work. 


A   SUMMARY  VIEW  591 

German  element  in  the  United  States.  In  taking:  account 
of  the  latter,  all  immigrations  of  the  nineteenth  as  well  as 
of  the  preceding  centuries  are  equally  concerned ;  each  is 
important  in  its  time  and  place,  and  its  influence  is  greatly 
determined  by  the  conditions  of  period  and  location. 

Having  traced  chronologically  the  settlements  of  the 
Germans  from  the  earliest  period  to  the  present,  having 
noted  their  location  and  distribution  throujrhout  the  terri- 
tory  of  the  United  States,  and  having  sketched  very  briefly 
their  activities  in  peace  and  war,  we  have  received  the 
necessary  historical  basis  for  approaching  the  subject  of 
the  influence  of  the  German  element  in  the  United  States. 
The  latter  is  the  theme  of  the  second  volume  of  this  work. 


END    OF    VOLUME    I 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .   A 


